Monday, October 13, 2008 – By : Gina aka. Agent Goldie
FATIMA August 2008 Mexico Tour Diary
Category: Music
traveling is tough. fun, but tough. we got started in our usual fashion. we like to call it rolling ‘fatima style’, which basically means running late. running late and freaking out. we are trying to get better about it, but the truth is, there just aren’t enough minutes in the day.
so, i was stressing big time that we would miss our plane. one time i cut it so close in arriving to the airport that the people from mexicana airlines were not going to let me fly. i feared that this time would be the same. not so. amazingly we made it to the airport with plenty of time. whew!
thursday, august 21st
it begins…
we arrived in DF around 5AM ish to the hotel. nothing too rockstar/glamourous. basically chilled and had lots of tequila and sprite. hit up our pal at the torta stand and instantly felt a more comfortable, familiar feeling.
berto, our video guy, flew separately and arrived in the evening. good times to start now!
friday, august 22th
hard rock with alesana
alesana…well, first off let me say that the guys from alesana seemed really nice and cool. i wasn’t a fan of their music before today, but their show rocked! i mean hard! i am now a fan. having said that though…
we arrived at the venue with plenty of time for a sound check and the usual stuff. lugging all our gear around we were told that we weren’t going to be allowed back stage or pretty much anywhere actually. turns out, alesana played the night before too, and someone jacked some of their equipment. not cool. here’s the thing, all musicians are supposed to be in this crazy life together. don’t jack someone else’s equipment. that just stinks. so uncool.
unfortunately we had to pay the price for someone else acting like an ass. their management was rightly pissed and upped security. upped it a little to high as far as we were concerned. so basically we weren’t allowed to go anywhere. we had to stand out front for hours until the show and then had to wait out front until we played. kinda weird and a pretty uncomfortable situation. not glamourous. ha ha.
i could go into more detail about how the back line wasn’t provided as promised, and we had to rent equipment that didn’t get there on time so we couldn’t do a sound check, we weren’t allowed to sell merchandise, etc. but that would just be me being negative.
the MOST IMPORTANT thing is, that when fatima played, they fucken’ rocked. they were awesome. the crowd loved them. the reaction and support made all of the other crap worth it. i was so proud and happy.
saturday, august 23rd
with elli noise
today our show was at a place called the black room. little place, but cool show. we hung out for a bit with carlos from elli noise and some of his crew. although i understood very little of what everyone was talking about, everyone was super cool. we met a lot of cool peeps. thanks to red, the promoter. hopefully we can all work together again soon.
sunday, august 24th
coacalco with disidente
yeah, interesting…humm, where to start…
we got there a little early and had nothing to do so we decided to cruise the local mall. why miss an opportunity to do a little advertising, so we taped a poster to berto’s back. he’s a very good sport.
well, for one all the electricity for the stage was running through one outlet. a guitar player/singer for one of the bands that played before fatima (can’t think of the band name at the moment, sorry…) seemed to be acting weird. i just thought he was dancing weird. you know, trying to work out his moves…but no, actually, the poor kid was getting electrocuted!!! apparently if you are touching your guitar strings and the microphone at the same time…not good! he looked like he got shocked bad too! kept holding his arm the rest of the night. other than that though, his band sounded pretty good. haha. really…maybe that’s what counts…
after that everything seemed to be going good. nobody else was injured. the sound wasn’t too bad either. we wrapped the mics in towels, so as not to get electrocuted, and we were ready to roll.
right before fatima took the stage, disidente and their crew arrived. fatima was setting up on stage and the club sound guy,and the disidente sound guy, were on the board working a few things out. then, bam, suddenly the sound got completely messed up! for half of the fatima set we could barely hear them. and, then amazingly when disidente took the stage, the sound was back to working and sounded great. coincidence…maybe. let’s give the the situation the benefit of the doubt.
lesson learned, travel with your own sound person. nuff said, we will, from here on out.
as a side note, the disidente guys seemed really cool and i’m certain the sound issues were not their doing.
monday, august 25th
day off in DF.
night before vic got a massage from guy.
we met him…interesting
had dinner at italian place
thunderstorm
played cards
berto threw up 4 times!
boys went to get tortas
i stayed checked emails, myspace and did business.
tuesday, august 26th
day off.
berto our video guy left for the U.S. today. made me sad. he is a lot of fun to have around, plus he is all around helpful. helps carry equipment and helps me look out for the guys, not to mention helps me communicate in spanish (haha!) i’m sad to see him go, and also nervous. it always feels better when we have more people around looking out for our little crew.
we were supposed to go the pyramids today, but that didn’t pan out. i get really bored and depressed on our days off. it’s hard not to go out and spend money, but this tour is on the cheap, so we have to lay low.
went to a bar called imperial to watch disidente and catch up with our peeps. josue from kill aniston and his awesome girlfriend tania met us there. we also met up with carlos from elli noise and partied the night away. good times. we got back to the hotel around 5AM and went to get tortas, but our guy was closing down for a few hours. got some snacks from 7 eleven and hit the sack.
wednesday, august 27th
another day off.
we’re all starting to get sick (not to mention the hangovers!). myself and cesar got some medicine from the pharmacy today. ever started on medicine yesterday. he was the smart one. victor has been feeling a little sick for a few days. amazingly rudy feels fine. rudy always feels fine. except for his stomach which disagrees with many foods. ha ha!
around 4PM i finally got out of bed and got cleaned up. we went to a serial killer exhibit. it was really cool. the audio was all in spanish, so of course i was lost, but i already knew most of it since that is an interest of mine and i’ve read many books on the subject. interesting stuff and a good exhibit.
came back to the hotel. the guys are watching a movie while i shower with actual shampoo instead of bar soap (a treat!) we’ll most likely just sleep the rest of the day. tomorrow starts 4 shows in a row, plus a bus trip to guadalajara.
thursday, august 28th
rockula, puebla
this is the second time i’ve been to puebla. it is such a beautiful quaint town. i love it. heard that it’s a big place for kidnaping though, which isn’t great, but…
rockutla is a really cool club. it just has a really great vibe. it wasn’t as busy tonight as we hoped, but apparently there were a few big shows going on in close proximity, and they had an effect on our draw that night. that happens…what can you do.
alex, the owner, was super cool though, and told us we could come back and play whenever we wanted. and we shall return!!
with alex, the owner
friday, august 29th
foro rocxy, coacalco
today we found out that our festival show for tomorrow got cancelled. sucks bad because it’s one of the shows we were really looking forward to. kinda got everyone depressed. we went to mexicana airlines to see if we could change our tickets to come back early. we figured we’d cut our losses and head home. with tomorrow’s show cancelled, we wouldn’t be able to sell any merch, and would end up spending a lot of unnecessary money. unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), we couldn’t change our tickets. so, we rallied and cheered up and pushed forward.
we rushed back to the hotel to shower, etc and headed out. we took the metro and bus for a meeting with a record label. taking the metro wasn’t bad on the way there…the way back is another story.
met with the label. things went well. we have a few options now, so we’ll have to pow wow and figure out which is best for us. we shall see. stay tuned.
we took the bus and metro back. not pleasant. i have issues with being trapped in small spaces, and i thought i was going to freak out. during rush hour people cram so tight into the metro it’s insane. and i mean, CRAM in! apparently there is a problem with women getting groped and whatever else, that the city has actually set aside metro cars just for women to ride in. i road with the guys of course, but i can definitely see why women would want to ride separate. when it was time to get out, we had to fight our way out the door. the guys looked out for me, put me in the middle of our group and we pushed out. thank god. man, that sucked.
i should mention that we were accompanied by one of our drivers to the meeting. we’ve been lucky enough that the guys who drive us to our shows are super cool and often help us with other things as well. like getting from point A to B. without our escort, we would be lost. i would probably still be on the metro getting my ass grabbed. haha. true though.
the meeting, bus, metro, all took longer than we expected, so we were running late when we finally got back to our hotel. we quickly showered, and jumped in the van to head out to our show at the rocxy in coacalco.
we think LA rush hour traffic is bad, ha! try rush hour on pay day in mexico city. insane! we sat in traffic for so long! we finally got the the venue at 10PM, after only getting rear ended once. side note: people in mexico drive like maniacs! i’m actually surprised that we have only been in one accident since we’ve been here.
got the the venue. the owner, luis told us that he didn’t think the night was going to be too busy for several reasons, so he would rather put us on two shows tomorrow that were sure to have a bigger crowd. cool guy. turns out, it’s ok that the original show for tomorrow cancelled, ’cause now we have two instead. coolness. so we just hung out for a while, had some vodka and orange concoction, and headed back to the city to get some sleep.
this guy used to live in the palm springs area and remembered fatima from then, so he came to support!
with luis, the owner
saturday, august 30th
vodka and orange. good, good, good, bad, bad, bad.
i am writing this after the fact, because i didn’t have the time or energy to write… but, let me just say, that having two shows today worked out great. the night show at foro rocxy was off the hook. it’s a small, but super cool place. the crowd was so enthusiastic and really supportive of the guys. luis and hooligan (not his really name, just what we called him because he looks like he could be the twin of a guy we know in LA called hooligan) were super cool. hooligan was a great help to the guys with both shows and and all around support. we really appreciated it!
truth is, everyone we’ve encountered on this trip was awesome! from the torta guy to our driver, to the club owners, other bands, and fans! all we got was a great deal of support!! thank you!
sunday, august 31st
hard rock, guadalajara
today i woke up still buzzed from the night before. or maybe i should say drunk. that’s probably more accurate. sounds fun, right? yeah, maybe if we didn’t have a 7 hour bus ride planned. we managed to get our acts together ( i think everyone with the exception of rudy felt the way i did, buzz wearing off, hangover coming on), and headed to the bus station for our trip to guadalajara.
since we were running late, all seats were full except for the ones at the back of the bus. the lovely fresh seats by the restroom. ever had a theory that people wouldn’t take craps because they were on a bus. wrong. we didn’t even leave the terminal before some guy went in the restroom for about 20 minutes. that was just the beginning.
since i was already feeling the beginnings of a hangover, i made a prediction that i would most likely throw up on the bus. see, what i haven’t mentioned is that i get incredibly motion sick. and most people know, that the back of the bus is the worst place to ride if you are hoping for a smooth trip.
getting jostled around, smelling other peoples crap, and having a hangover is a deadly combination. i basically sent 7 hours puking my guts out on a stinky ass bus. rock ‘n’ roll.
we arrived in guadalajara just in time for our show at the hard rock. we took a cab from the bus station straight to the venue without stopping at our hotel to clean up. the guys weren’t in too bad of shape because they slept on the bus a little. i was another story.
we walked in, gear and suitcases in hand. i was really surprised and happy to see our friends from rock sin fronteras. i was not expecting to see them and it was a great surprise. we all said our hello’s, kissing on cheeks, hugging. that’s when i realized that i most likely smelled like puke. at the very least i was not fresh! ha ha!
i ran to the restroom, changed my clothes, brushed my teeth, etc., while the guys rushed to get ready to go on stage. twenty minutes after arriving at the hard rock, after a 7 hour bus ride, the guys rallied and took the stage.
they rocked it hard! it was a great show!! the crowd loved it. the sound was good. we couldn’t have asked for more.
after the guys finished, we set up the merch, sold some stuff, signed lots of autographs, and had a good night. yahtzee!
monday, september 1st
surprise!
the guys have a little game called el premio mayor (the biggest surprise). this game is one basic example of the difference between men and women. women would never play this game. at least the women i hang around with. thankfully so.
as of yesterday we are in guadalajara, all sharing the same room. this morning, bright and early, i got to play the game. here’s how it works…the guy who gets up first leaves a gigantic surprise in the toilet for the next person to experience. surprise! lovely. today i got to see and smell everything that victor ate for the last 24 hours. i have never seen or smelled something so foul. buenos dias!
aside from waking up to a pile of crap, i am happy because today is our last day in mexico. don’t get me wrong, i have a lot of great experiences every time we go on the road, whether it be to mexico, northern california, texas, etc. but i miss my home. i miss my dog, betty and cat, lula. corny, sure, but true. i miss restrooms with toilet seats, and toilet paper, drinking water straight from the tap, having one towel all to my self, all the things that i take for granted.
relaxed
aroused
amused
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