Ketman has just returned from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
A Massive city of what people tell me is inhabited by 18 million. It’s a monster of a city. We arrived on April 3, the same day as our first show. We played a new club here who has bands on Fridays along side a raging dance party. It’s called Neu Club. We arrived about 9 in the morning and Sergio (our main contact and booking supervisor here) received us and brought us to a hotel in a quaint yet urban section of town. We took a nap and kicked around the neighborhood for a while. Sergio met us back later in the evening for some dinner and to get us to the club. We had some beer and a plate of frango a passarinho. Even though I come across this dish in Boston, it’s not as good as savory or garlicky as it is this night. We returned to the hotel and walked our equipment to the club, an adventurous idea that we found draining when put into practice. The club was a home converted to an underground venue/dance party spot. We played on the floor of a larger-sized living room. The anticipation of playing here was building. I was told I’d be playing a Giannini amp. These amps were made in Brazil in the 60´s and are every bit as cool (with the fact they’re Brazilian maybe cooler and definitively more exotic) as other great tube amps from the 60´s.
Show time arrived (about 12:30 in the morning) and the house was packed. The energy was high and I got the feeling people were very curious to see us play. Being that Ketman has been playing as a five piece for the better part of a year, many old songs were resurrected from our strictly 3-piece days. The set drew heavily on El Toro and clocked in at almost 45 minutes which I believe is a new record for us. The reception after was very good. People said a lot of nice things to us and we felt good about the set albeit some rust still being cleaned off of select songs. We celebrated with the crowd until somewhere between 4 and 5 and which time we retired to our hotel for a deep and restful sleep.
DAY 2:
We woke a bit dehydrated from a Caipirinha or two and prepared our selves and equipment for evacuation before 12. We ate some quick food and had some wonderful coffee in preparation for the day ahead. Sergio met us a little after 1 and we headed to his house. His mother is an architect and designed a beautiful home with a light, unconfined feel from the abundance of windows everywhere. We relaxed for a bit and I went to rent a car for our journey. We rented a VW Gol. It’s a tiny little thing that was rented unwittingly into being the workhorse and cornerstone of our tour. It was going to transport, 3 musicians, 1 tour manager, 1 bass, 1 guitar, 1 bass amp, 1 guitar amp, 1 snare drum, cymbals, stands, kick drum, two toms and some clothes and personal items. Amazing? I think so. The culmination of Sergio and Joe's packing alchemy was the moment we saw everything fit just right. Gabriela, who booked this tour, will be going with us this night to our second show after which we’ll stay at her parents house and head to the 3rd show before coming back to Sergio’s Sunday night. Mora, being the only one of all traveling parties that can drive stick, drove us, very well I might add, to
Mogi Das Cruzes where we arrived about 9 pm. Some navigation and clueless meandering about the city ensued and we arrived at a very retro 60´s vibe club called Divinia Comedia run by a kind guy by the name of Alexandre. We set up and sound checked and met the guys from Hierofante Porpura who would go on to play six more dates with us. As a testament to how things run in Brazil, this sound check and load in occurred at 10:30. Doors here open at Midnight. Craziness.
Hungry? Yes I was. We walked to a little stand about a block from the club and had a hot dog. Hot Dogs as we knew them were not made like these though. The vender grabs a thick sub roll, slide some mayo in it, puts a hot dog in it, a healthy portion of mashed potato, onions, tomatoes, bacon (provided to him by his right hand man who simply cooks bacon. Enough bacon is being consumed here for it to be the sole task of an assistant cook. Wait though, I’m not done with the contents part of this story... he puts ketchup and mustard, a full load of lettuce and potato sticks. Once the sandwich is wrapped up and the end is sticking out, a huge glob of mashed potato is slabbed onto the end to assure the starchy overdose upon first bite. Needless to say, this was a delicious hot dog.
Doors open...club fills...DJ rocks the night with some great tunes that got everyone dancing. Tunes I remember that really got me were Debaser, Cherub Rock, and a Strokes rarity I have never heard before about the cops or something. At about 1:30 Hierofante Púrpura takes the stage. We played at about 2:30 and were well received. The night all in all was a success and an auspicious beginning to the series of shows we’ll be playing with the Hierofante guys.
DAY 3:
After the Mogi show we travel to our tour manager Gabriela's parents house in Taubate. We arrive at about 8 am and her parents are awake and greet us. We have some food and coffee before passing out. I was roused some five hours later by a phone call from Sergio. I overhear some talk about a festival going on outside. I get up and go along with Gabriela´s father to an outdoor gathering at a recreational club. There I saw a band playing a sort of jumble of samba and dixieland jazz called Chorro. The Instrumentation was simply ukulele, tambourine, clarinet, and 7-string classical guitar. Those guys blew my mind. I witnessed an unparalleled tambourine solo. Words can't describe....
Upon returning home, Gabriela's parents whipped up an amazing barbecue feat in real Brazilian form. Joe outate everyone. Steak after steak, linguica after linguica Joe put it down. Once he was finally finished he was offered a grilled banana. "noooo!!!!" he answered rejecting the offer. After this brute negation the boy ate two grilled bananas.
Now, I don't know if you know but Brazilians are made of sugar. That's why only fifteen people made it out to the show in the neighboring town of Pindamonhangaba. It was not a great show for us. I broke two strings and this distracted us quite a bit. Someone bought a cd even still. Not much else to report here. Hierofante played better this night than the first. They just got a new drummer named Hugo whom they are breaking in steadily. After this early show, we headed back for some well-earned sleep at base camp in Sao Paulo.
DAY 4:
The tour really takes flight here. We head out in the early afternoon to
Bragança Paulista, a small city of about 120,000 around an hour away from Sao Paulo proper. It's beautiful and has these intense San Francisco hills that make for sweeping views of a large portion of the city. Its proximity to Sao Paulo makes it a commuter town. We headed straight to music school run by the show promoter Queque called Jardim Eletrico (electric Garden – named after an album by Mutantes). There were loads of great records for sale and music lessons going on around us. I sat and listened to side one of Caftan Veloso’s 1971 album recorded in London after he had been exiled from Brazil. He sings in weak English but the album is the sound of exile evoking the confusion and awkwardness of becoming accustomed to his new world. Everyone there treated us very well and it set a great tone for the day. The owners of this music school are in a band called Leptospirose who are making quite a name for themselves far and wide. An article hangs on the wall that appears to be an interview with them in a Japanese magazine.
We play tonight at the Sociadade Italo-Brasileiro, which has a sort of VFW hall basement room with big sort of pillars but with a cool orangish/redish color scheme going on. We hear the shows here go off. There's quite an echo in this room. The Building stands on a hill so from the back you can overlook all of Braganca. Very Pretty. We take a walk around the main square in Braganca and relax for a bit before heading back and learning the first band has played. I like to catch everyone's set here because the curiosity kills me. Hierofante still hasn't showed up so we decided to set up and play and see if they make it later. They arrive just before our set and we agree to shorten things up to allow them time to play (10:00 curfew).
Words can't express the love I felt from this crowd. They gave us a lot of energy. Wow. If I closed my eyes and heard those 30 people clapping I would have said it was 100 people. We played hard and really fast. It was the first time I had this sort of satisfaction playing here. We clicked at that show from being a band to being a band on tour. It was an exhilarating feeling. Gabriella was disappointed with the turn out having expected about 100 more people to show. I for one wasn't disappointed at all and in fact I will remember this show as one of the best on the entire tour. We made many friends including Thichi who took many great shots of the night. We all went out after the show to grab a bite to eat after which we headed home to Sergio's in Sao Paulo.
DAY 5: our first day off
Sergio brought us to the very center of Sao Paulo where we checked into a Hotel. Being such a huge city, the task of getting to know it in any way at all becomes very daunting. The very heart of this beast of city is a good start. After an interview via phone with a reporter in Sorocaba writing us up for the paper tomorrow, we begin our afternoon at the Ponte Chic Restaurant where we try the famous Bauru sandwich that was invented right here. It's a sort of roast beef sandwich with a 6-cheese mix on top. Very tasty. We make our way through the mad streets fighting the bloodthirsty drivers and the phalanx of pedestrians to finally arrive at the municipal market. Every delectable foreign food item hangs or sits on display for our hungry eyes. We make the mistake of speaking English at a fruit stand with every exotic fruit imaginable. Some sales guy comes over to us and forces us to sample an assortment fruits each of which is incredibly unique. He starts packing some away and we quickly find ourselves stuck with a 60$ box of tropical fruits. We did it to ourselves but it makes for quite the feast later on so It's probably worth it. We exit the market for fear of someone else takign us on a rip off tourist ride through foodland.
The air is thick here in the center of the city. Pollution is a major p art of daily life here. The streets alongside the market are full of street vendors loudly promoting their great product to whoever will listen. I haggle with a guy for bootleg socks for Mora and she buys some sunglasses just down the congested street. Arriving back to home base from here, I prepare myself for record shopping. The Center of Sao Paulo has a number of malls or gallerias as they call them. Inside these malls are a number of vinyl record stores. Brazil is not a country that preserves its history well. Many things of cultural importance fall to the wayside. Brazil is a place with a rich musical history. Jovem Guarda was the rock movement here in the 60's. It was very reminiscent of the English-speaking rock movements and often times derivative to a fault. It was also short lived because soon after its inception, Tom Jobim came around and brought Bossa Nova into the Lexicon of world music. Bossa was an inherently Brazilian movement and it put rock music in the back seat until Tropicalia came around mixing psychedelic and Brazilian traditional song while protesting the Military dictatorship of the late 60's. With this said, foreigners often times realized the wealth of great music found here in Brazil more than the actual Brazilians. Many Japanese and French bought up the great Brazilian catalogue on vinyl. Now many of these records end up on eBay selling for $100 a pop. Needless to say, they didn't buy them all. I started out in a great record store called ---------. I told my story to the owner and he began spinning lots of 45s for me and I told him to set aside the ones I liked while I flipped through boxes and boxes of jovem Guarda and Bossa Nova records. After a good hour and half there, I moved onto other stores on the same floor of the galleria none of which were as awesome. The day was winding down and I was told about a record store called Discos Sete that specialized in psychedelic. In the morning I would pay them a visit. At day's end I had probably listened to 200 records of which I bought about 10 LPs and 4 45s. Notable buys included Adriana – Anjo Azul 45 (hear the a-side to this single on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlCb8U1DTHs ) Outside of our hotel was a dance school with a band playing samba music. I ran up to the room and grabbed the other two ketmen and returned to watch the authetic samba jams being kicked out of the dance school. We grabbed some food after and headed back to the hotel for a tropical fruit fest with our trophies from the municipal market. A couple hours later, Sergio would be picking us up to go see Iverness, a band we'll be heading out with at the end of the tour, play at a place called Livraria Da Esquinha (the bookstore on the corner). The night was good fun.
DAY 6:
In The AM as promised, I headed to Discos Sete. Claudinho owns and runs this store. He really has an exceptional collection. I play a number of records and wind up with Gal Costa's second record (I can not speak highly enough of this record. A psychedelic masterpiece. hear one of best tracks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA-9Z4Iyvd8 ), 2 Claudette Soares records (both mix 60's girl and lounge pop with samba and bossa nova seamlessly) A Silvinha record (I know nothing about her but I played the record in the store based on the cover art and dug it enough to buy it) and an Arlette Zolla record.
We Rendezvoused with Sergio for our noon departure to Botucatu where Sergio had to meet a promoter for some non-ketman related biz. We kicked around the little town for a while and ate some bbq meat on a stick. When Sergio was all set, we headed to our destination all the while listening to Sergio's tales of touring the states with his old band Debate. His stories helped the cramped seat I was in feel more comfortable somehow.
Sorocaba is home to the world's best chicken ball. It is also a college town with one bar for rock music. That bar closed and the scene there made a new bar called The Black Label Society the home for rock music in town. It's a little crammed narrow room but the energy is high. -------- opened the show and killed it with a high-energy set which included a cover of the Minutemen's classic Vietnam. Hierofante Purpoa played next and once again proved to be a hit with the crowd and all three ketmans. We played another tight set and I really felt propulsion I haven't quite felt in this band before. It really felt like we were on fire. Very similar to the Braganca show. a lot of energy was in the room. I just wish there had been a little more room to fit everyone inside.
After the show, I had good conversations. The people there were very interesting. One guy told me he had taken a class that focused three lessons on Chico Buarque's classic Brazilian song Construção. We talked about the song quite a bit and he explained the meter of the song and we discussed the lyrics. Very enlightening. I'm glad I had some prior knowledge of Brazilian music; it has enabled me to really learn about it way more in depth than I could have from home.
I notice also the prevalence of college students majoring in Communications. Television, Radio, Internet design etc are all very popular. Information is growing in Brazil and avenues of communication are developing rapidly. I don't think I met a single person tonight that wasn't studying something in the communications field.
I'm not sure how many readers know what a Coxinha is but it is a fried chicken ball that is renown for it's deliciousness. It's hard to describe but it's cooked chicken with a thin layer of creme cheese surrounded by a soft but crispy doughy outer layer. Sorocaba is home to the tastiest Coxinha on the planet. The second thing Sergio told us after we landed on Brazilian soil was, "on April 8th, we're going to eat the best chicken ball on earth". He was right, at the Padaria Real, we all indulged in the greatest chicken ball on earth. Yum.
We returned to our friend Andy's house. Andy plays in a band called the Name who we had seen play at an American Apparel store in Sao Paulo on our second day in town (before leaving for Mogi). He treated us very well and the accommodations were exceptional.
Day 7:
We woke up rested on day 7. We chilled at Andy's for the afternoon and tried to fill in some blank days on our tour schedule. Saturday the 11th had been canceled and we wanted to fill it. Since Mogi Das Cruzes had been such a welcoming place for us, we decided to call the owner and see if he'd have us back. Excitedly, he said yes and began promoting the show with fervor. Sergio booked us another Sao Paulo show at the venue we visited on our day off, Livraria da Esquinha. He also was able to get us a show in Rio. We made great progress on this day and we were all thrilled. Time came to say our goodbyes to Andy and we headed to Padaria Real for another chicken ball.... or three... each. sooooo good.
We arrived in Campinas at a bar called bar do Ze. It's the first place with a stage that we've come across on this whole tour. It has excellent sound too run by Montanha (mountain). He's a big dude and mountain is the perfect name. We sound check and everything is great. The room is big, the sound is good, and we’re very excited. People have been telling us this show is going to be great. Sure enough, the place fills in very nicely as Ladz opens the show. Ladz is okay but all I could think was Oasis the whole time. They even covered an Oasis song. We played a very solid set after them. The energy from Braganca is still carrying through. I could hear everything really well and this was truly one of the more enjoyable sets of the tour. The nights start to get pretty late around this part of the week heading into the weekend. Lots of conversation went on and I got into a great conversation with two college kids about Brazilian music and they passed on to me the name of two excellent blogs I was thankful to learn of - Loronix and nuggets. Montanha and Mora hit it off back stage as he tried to explain the samba rhythm to her. They beat on boxes jamming out to the heartbeat of Brazilian music. I was thrilled because I think the Samba rhythm is one of the most under utilized rhythms on the planet. It's hard to learn but I have long wanted to incorporate it. Chapter Three which was on our Golden Fiction EP was an attempt to dive into Bossa and Samba.
We spent the night with very sweet friend of Andy's (with whom we stayed in Sorocaba with) named Simone. I can't say enough about how well she treated us. All the hospitality in this country has been exceptional. I'll never forget the warmth these strangers have shown me.
Day 8:
We Arrived in Limeira on a holiday. Boi Fallo or the cow spoke holiday to be precise. It's the Friday before Easter and once upon a time a cow spoke to its peasant caretaker that this was a day for rest from work and eating meat. We decided to be sinners and eat Brazilian BBQ on this holy of days. Cow never tasted so good. We went with Sergio and the promoter of tonight's show, Gumba. Joe ate so much we clapped every time he accepted a new piece of meat onto his plate. The boy is impressive. After this, we would split from Sergio for a couple of days and spend this day lazily on assorted couches at Gumba's house sleeping and recuperating. I watched a little TV but mostly just lay around. The Hierofante guys rolled over to Gumba's house early for once. We all convened at about 9 pm. We sat outside for a bit and headed over to Gumba's club with him around 10. The Club is called Kingston and it appeared that people had quite a good time there the night before. We sound checked and prepared for the many hours of waiting before we played. Looks like we'd go on at about 2:30am. Luzes! Open the show with great presentation and theatrics but little substance in the form of songs. Again Hierofante played a solid set followed by another good set by Ketman. I don't think we've ever played this many solid shows in a row before. It feels great.
We stayed late as hell, got paid and took off to Mogi Das Cruzes where we would be playing our second show at Divinia Comedia. It was a long tiring drive that landed us in beds at 10:00 AM at Hierofante's guitar player Gabriel's house. We only slept three hours though because He had to go to his father and sister's birthday party the next day.
Day 9: Mogi II
At 1 pm after only 3 hours of sleep, we were woken up to head out. We went to Gabriel's dad's house. It's a gorgeous farmhouse built by slaves in the middle 1800's. It's quite stunning with vast open rooms and a beautiful lake behind it and woods filled with so many crazy plants and animals. It was jungle-like. Joe signed up for the zip line out of the trees across the water and down onto the hill. He was scared but thrilled I think. We walked through the woods and as night set in, we watched Gabriel's father build a beautiful fire. On top the fire was placed a metal grill slab and in what we have come to learn is true Brazilian form, Gabriel's Dad threw some pork on there and cooked it up. Sounds Primal but oh lord did that meat rock my world. Wow. I can taste it now just writing this. Nearing 10:00, we decided to head out and gather our gear for the show. We made it to the venue at 11:30 and prepared to sound check. It felt great to return to the venue with the most character thus far. Alexandre, the owner, was again incredibly nice to us. Dance Party ensued again after midnight and the room slowly filled. About double the crowd was here this time. People had talked about last week's show and some returned to see more while others came to hear what all the buzz was about. We were excited to play knowing we were a much better band than we were just a week before. We took the stage at 2:10 and played a much better set this time. People were very excited and that excitement made a huge difference to our performance. We really used their energy and spit it back to them. Intense set.
We loaded out (after all of Alexandre's stories and hanging out and laughing) at about 8 am. Exhausted, we headed back once again to Gabriel's house and once again only slept until 1PM when we were meeting a guy named Daniel who we would follow back to Sao Paulo.
Day 10 + 11: Vegetative Days off...
Daniel owns a recording studio and practice space in Sao Paulo. It is in this recording studio that Hugo (Hierofante drummer extraordinaire) records bands. We arrived and chilled out finally. Since leaving for Sorocaba, we had gone non-stop through shows and driving. We were ecstatic to have some days off. It was Easter Sunday so nothing was brewing anyway. Sergio and some others showed up a bit later to hang out and check up on us. We passed out early and it was beautiful slumbering.
The next morning, we found ourselves locked in the compound of a recording studio until about 5. I spent most of the day sending messages out to anyone I could find online about the show in Rio the next day. We were antsy to not lose any money on that long trip. The response was positive and I thought everything would work out. I went out with my Cousin who lived in Sao Paulo and the other all went out for Caipirinhas. We all reconvened a little after midnight and slept another night of good sleep.
Day 12: Rio
Waking up in great form felt amazing. I was hype for the Rio show; I hadn't been there in 20 years. I was thrilled to see the city but as ever, apprehensive of the atrocious crime running rampant throughout the city. Sergio was running a couple of hours late but us up by 2. We began the long 4-hour trek. The drive was sunny and beautiful. We made a gas stop and Mora had offered to drive when Sergio replied, "It's okay I got it". This proved to be a huge error once the police stopped us just 15 minutes later because Sergio's license was expired. That was not a good thing. The cop says: "who'll be taking the car from here"? "She will.' says Sergio pointing at Mora. "Let me see her license." answers the cop to which Sergio replies, "she's American". To be dicks, the cops wanted a notarized letter translating Mora's driver's license in order for her to be able to drive. No one, not the consulate, not the rental agency, no one said we needed such a letter. We haggled with the cop for a long time. We fought and fought but they were un-budgable. Time was running out and we needed to get to the show. We called a taxi and went to the nearby city of Resende. Getting to the show was the most important thing. Time however was not on our side. 55 people had paid to see us in Rio and we were too far away to make it to the club in time to play. I could picture all the faces of the people waiting for us, people I had contacted the day before, the people Sergio promoted to and the club owner awaiting us eagerly. After nearly 150 shows, we finally canceled one. Rio. Of all shows we canceled Rio. We hired two cab drivers. One to take us all to the car and another to liberate the car from there and Drive it back to Resende where we'd all reconvene and head back to Sao Paulo defeated. We were crushed and had lost a lot of money to get to 120 KM from our destination. It was a crushing ride home with our sad souls and anger over the helplessness we felt to be at the whim of corrupt Cops. This story though is really just so typically Rio. The people of brazil, these wonderful heartwarming people don't deserve to live this sad excuse for cops. We returned defeated but determined to make the rest of the tour count.
Day 13: Livraria Da Esquinha.
Waking up in the town we were playing that night was a good feeling. It was a long drive to nothing the day before so this was a welcome new beginning. The second leg of this tour really begins here. We walked a bit through what seemed to be the medical district of Sao Paulo, eating some food along the way and hanging out in the sun for a while. We were excited to play in Sao Paulo proper again because we were a much better band now and this was to be our last show with our friends Hierofante Purpoa. It was the Ketman Tour show actually because opening the night was Iverness, the band we would be closing out our tour with. The show had really just been booked so promotion started three days before. It worked pretty well. We played to a decent number of people and though the energy was lower than average for this tour, we were pleased overall.
Day 14: Sao Carlos
Sergio went with us the next day to Sao Carlos. It would be the last time he would travel with us for the remainder of days. It was a long drive and we had some good laughs having gotten over the trauma of the Rio fiasco. We roll into Sao Carlos at about 9 pm. We're playing at a sort of frat house in a huge courtyard outside where apparently there will be a crazy party happening in a few hours. We load in, put our gear away and head out to eat some food. You know something simple like a sandwich with two hot dogs, bacon, cheese, chicken, potato sticks, sauces, tomatoes and onion. I'm going to need a double bypass when I get home.
We head back to the frat house and veg for a while. When I awake, I go to take a look outside and I can't believe how many people are here. It was amazing. I went to sleep and no one was there, I wake up and everyone was there. Sergio and I went to scope out the first band. They were a decent jam-type band but they played for way too long, almost an hour. I started getting a little nervous because in the states, we would not go over well at all at a party like this. Sergio says we should play a short set. It takes me nearly 20 minutes to make my way through the crowd to get to our car to wake Mora who's sleeping inside. I rouse her and warned, "be prepared because the way things were when you went to sleep are no longer the way things are now. Chill and wake up for a minute because you can't just go back in there with out some time in the decompression chamber!" She took my advice and we went back in to wade through the ocean of Brazilian college bodies. Plano Proximal played second bringing some rock and roll vibes to the place before we played. The set was loaded differently so as to try and hold this crowd's attention. It was a little bit of a challenge but it went over really well. We played 25 solid minutes to what we were told were 400 people. After our set, the party raged on with another crazier jam band playing after us and then just sheer partying until 7:30 AM. We woke Sergio (who had long since been sleeping on the couch) and dropped him off at the bus station to get a bus home before heading to the promoter Filipe’s house. He lived in a house of filmmakers and there was a wonderful collection of books to peek through and be amazed by. As I said, communications is the major in Brazil and everyone at the party last night/ this morning also majored in communications. Sao Carlos has a huge university with an independent college radio station. Sounds like normal college stuff right? We just did a radio promo sending 350 stations copies of our album El Toro in the states. Well in Brazil, this is not so common. In all of Brazil there are probably only 3 or 4 independent radio stations on college campuses. This was really way cool to learn about. We fell asleep this night with this station playing a show of indigenous music called "sounds of Brazil" in our heads as we drifted to peaceful slumber...
Day 15:
Waking at about 2pm, we headed out to taste the local eats. Filipe took us to a great local eatery and we filled up real nice. We'd left the gear at the house we played the night before so we went back there to grab it and remembered we blew a fuse in the bass amp. Filipe took us to an electronics store where we got our backline up and running again. This was to begin the final stretch of the tour. We were going to meet Iverness (the band we're winding down our tour with) and follow them to a nearby city called araraquara to play at the Caibar. Filipe had places to be so he dropped us off at the radio station where we could all get caught up on email, which has been scarce and will remain so for the remainder of the tour. The Radio station was very nice and well put together. I commended the whole crew over there for all their good work in the name of building an independent scene. The Facility is pretty solid and spacious. They have the capacity to do live in-studio sessions and seem to be making good use of that ability as evidenced by the CD of live on air recordings we were given. The station also sponsors a festival rock show once a year that had brought Mudhoney and others to play for thousands in Sao Carlos. You can listen online to this radio station 95.3 at: www.radio.ufscar.br
Around 9:30 Iverness rolls onto campus and finds us at the radio station. We all pose for some photos with the program director, drink some coffee and take off. Mora had brought some walkie-talkies with us and this was the first chance to rock them. It really helped the Iverness mobile keep in contact with the Ketmobile. We arrive in Araraquara only 45 minutes later and drive around town quite a bit before finally finding Caibar. The owner, whose name slips my mind right now, was very kind and opened the doors to his spacious club. It has a definite rock feel to it and everybody has been telling me this is the place for rock music in the area. There's a stage and plenty of rock imagery around including a mural of assorted rock stars painted along one of the walls. We all sound check and get everything squared away before heading out with our new friends to get some eats. We go (of course) to get some hot dog sandwiches. Mine again was loaded with ground beef potato sticks and whatever else nestled snuggly around my dogs. Iverness is a rather new band and this is there first multi-show outing so their excitement and enthusiasm is rather infectious. The jokes seem more immature and free flowing yet still funny. It's good for us this late in the game.
We head back to the club and wait around until about 12:30 when Iverness plays their swirly noise pop to a relatively empty room. Sao Carlos definately spoiled us. A lot of the shows on this tour have spoiled us. We played for maybe 20 people but the room was huge so it just felt a little weak. We've grown used to a sort of fervor we didn't feel at this show unfortunately. The paper had even run a big piece on us we later found out but it seemed to do little to help us attract much public. We played a bit sloppy too and on the whole were so-so. The people that were there were nice and friendly and we had a better time hanging out after the set than actually playing I think. We rolled out at the usual 5 or 5:30 and headed back to Filipe's house where both bands would spend another restful night. The drive home was gorgeous with rolling hills of tropical grass illuminated by the early morning touch of the rising sun. We slept well again and owe Filipe a great debt for having helped us this night.
Day 16: Ribeirao Preto
We woke with a long drive ahead of us. It was a hot sunny day and the whole gang headed to Filipe's favorite eatery again. We ate with an entertaining scene of a pigeon that made his way into the restaurant with a kamikaze ideation to finally storm the buffet, very entertaining in deed. We came back to home base and embarked from there on a three-hour drive to Ribeirao Preto. People had been talking this show up to us for a while so it sounded like quite a bit of fun. We arrived in town at 7 and had a couple of hours to relax or walk around until a television interview and sound check at 9:30. Joe and I and the bass player of Iverness went out for beer and some lite eats. The town had a strange vibe to it. The stores were named weird things like a pharmacy called "drug leader" for example. We arrived at the club and were a bit shocked to see this slick 2-story, posh venue different from anything we've seen thus far. They had by far the best sound system we'd seen in Brazil and noticed the promotion for this evening's show was pretty thorough. We had a decent guarantee for tonight and a sweet hotel room marking a watershed moment for us. This is the first time a promoter has ever put us up in a hotel. Very nice indeed. We met two girls from the local TV station Carol and one I can’t remember for an interview. They asked us some questions and taped our sound check. The segment hasn't aired yet but I'll get a link up when it's done. We headed back to the hotel after the sound check and chilled for a bit. Some took naps while others, myself included watched the miss Sao Paulo competition. Some of the Iverness guys thought those girls were not hot but Joe and I thought they were way better than the Miss America girls. Many jokes were made.
We arrived back at the club around 11:45 and it had filled up pretty well. Around 12:30 the first band called Alma Mater played and shoegazed out the place. Iverness played next getting better with each passing show we see. Finally we got to play at god knows that time. I felt this would probably be the last big show of the tour and it was exciting. We played a solid set to a hype room and closed out the night with a good dose of energy. We returned to our hotel at 6am and slept a sound sleep.
Day 17:
The Final day arrived. Iverness arranged for us to have our rooms until noon (an hour later than check out normally is). The Town was dead. 24-hour eateries were even closed everything but gas stations were closed. We headed out of town on a four-hour expedition to Indaiatuba where we would close out the tour. As has been the case the last few days, the drive was beautiful with landscapes vast and wild tropical vegetation. We rolled into our last city at about 6. Sound check was at 8 so we had some time to kill. There was a big Soccer game on so most inhabitants were firmly planted at home. We arrived at Plebe bar and just waited. We got bored and headed to a mall for a while but mostly we just waited. The Bar owner arrived and we loaded in and sound checked. We could tell the whole day that no one was coming to this show. Iverness had some friends come out and they played a solid set before we got on and played a loose set of some songs we hadn't really played yet on this tour in order to keep things interesting for Iverness who at this point had seen us play four times. We all had some beers and laughs after making it a fun last show amongst friends. We hung out until about 11:30 and headed back to Sergio’s where we got some restful sleep and packed our bags for the return home.
In Summation, I think witnessing firsthand the development of a fresh DIY music scene and to play even a small part in it was a unique experience. I saw a lot of people making something out of nothing for their love of music. We all know well that DIY established itself as a successful element of American music culture and that in time it can be created. It’s a sincere love of art that leads people to do such things. It’s inspiring to see people building college radio in a place that has no such thing or touring in a country where no one was toured independently yet or opening rock clubs in converted houses where like-minded people can come together and build a scene uniting common tastes.
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