Our USA 2 a days tour wrapped up at The House of Blues in Anaheim. Matt got a wig. real human hair even!
Got off stage and loaded up the gear. At 2 am the bus leaves and we head to our studio in van nuys. We pack up our lives for the last 2 months and say goodbye to our families, friends, and lovers that have joined us for the last leg of our US tour (worst day ever) and get the gear ready to fly to Brussels, Belgium which leaves in 4 hrs at 6 am. We unpack all the gear at the studio at around 3 am. Get to LAX at 4 pm (drunk)
A strange girl asks if we want to get high. She looks like she is headed to rehab. We politely decline. Board flight at 6 am, 4 hr layover in New Jersey. Arrive in brussels at 8 am. Grab the 2 hr shuttle to Grozerock Festival and unload the gear.
2 hrs later Mariachi el Bronx hits the stage. 6 hrs later the The Bronx hit the stage.
(this dude got kicked out for climbing the pole = horse shit)
("fuck the volcano dude" is pretty sweet though. he didnt get kicked out)
Pack the gear, 2 hr shuttle back to Belgium at 1 am for a 9 am flight to London. At this point none of us can talk. Matt decides wearing the wig on the shuttle to the airport is a pretty good idea. Unload the gear. Spend an hour checking in - doing what we call the shake and bake. Airline regulations are so strict on weight limitations that we "technically” can't fly with the amount of crap that we have unless we pay around $1,000 per flight for overages. This is how shake and bake works (what a retarded name). Start with the heaviest item (generally Jorma's cocktail kit) and its over weight. No surprise. So then we remove the item from the scale to shuffle some stuff around to see if we can make the weight. So in the meantime we put a half empty suitcase on the scale that is an oversize item (this means the airline won't take the bag, you have to go drop it off in the oversize baggage section) and we take that off the scale and put it to the side after it has been tagged. As the attemdent is weighs the drum case (again) we start cramming pedal boards, merch, banner, strings - anything that we can get into suitcase because it has already been cleared for weight while her attention is elswhere. We remove the drum case (again) and take stuff out and put it aside while we weigh another bag that is half full and oversize and it clears the weight restrictions and is set aside. Then we cram that with proclivities, jackets, and everything we can stuff in it while the attendent is weighing the drum case again. This happens over and over till we get everything tagged. Fuck that shit.
2 hr flight to London. Take shuttle directly to rehearsals for the Latin Music Fest at the Barbican. We rehearse with mariachi femenil nueveo tecalitla for 7 hrs learning each others material.
We had to communicate through a translator because none of them spoke English and our Spanish good enough to order a few tacos the way we like them. . then at 8 – we start rehearsing with our new bass player Drew from Babyshambles, who we have never met because Karla fell ill and couldn’t make the tour.
Good thing he is a total badass and learned our Mariachi record in 1 day. Rehearse till 11. Then hit the hotel for 7 hrs of sleep – then off to the Barbican for dress rehearsal.
the group ( mariachi femenil nueveo tecalitlan, emmy the great, drew babyshambels, mariachi el bronx = freak show)
6 hrs of dress rehearsal then finally showtime. this has been one of the richest musical experiences we have ever had. Load the gear at midnight – 9 am bus call the next day to start UK tour with both bands playing every night. Even though none of us could really talk and everything that came out of our collective mouth(s) made no sense at this point, we felt like a bunch of bad asses. Craziest 72 hours of our lives.
