High Blue Star in Mexico: day six

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On Saturdays in Mexico City there is a street market of the Gothic persuasion. It ran about 5 blocks long and was full of vendors selling clothing, jewelry, posters, Cd's and records... pretty much anything black, depressing, angering, scary, or just plain silly. Under a warm Mexican sun I would guess there were about 500-600 Goth kids/people wandering the market wearing leather, vinyl, velvet, or some combination thereof. At the end of the street there was a kind of "grind-core goth" band playing on a low stage under some sort of awning. With all the food normally found on the streets of this city I half expected to see a booth selling some sort of gothic food, whatever that may be. Maybe "blood shots" with Sangria or something...I don't know.

We wandered through the market for a couple of hours or so. We didn't really find much that any of us wanted to buy but it was cool to look around. We walked from the market to our hotel to check in. Leonardo's father met us at the hotel with our equipment and bags. The man at the desk gave us our keys and off we went to our rooms. We drew keys and Martin and I got the better of the rooms, two huge windows and an enormous bathroom with double doors. I never did see the other room but Brian remarked that they should have picked the other key.

Next door was Dada X where the show was to be held. We went in to do sound check at around 4 and barely got done by the time doors opened at 8. Difficulties upon difficulties. Communication with the house sound engineer was nearly impossible what with the volume and language barrier but somehow (after about a pack of cigarettes a piece)our gear eventually arrived and Brian pieced things together so the show could go. I never was sure of the exact numbers of the show. I know there were only 400 tickets being sold. Martin got a barrage of people asking for photos and autographs. The rest of us got a fair amount of requests as well. It was all a bit strange but I enjoyed it. The crowd was very warm and cheered us at every movement. At one point amongst all the spanish in the crowd I remember hearing someone yell in English, "You're fucking awesome!" and I couldn't help but smile. I believe High Blue Star took the stage at around 11 and Attrition around 12:30 with the club closing at 4am. I met quite a few people throughout the night and will stay in contact with a few of them. After the show we stumbled back to our hotel but not before a toast with tequila.

Someone did, however, grab my camera from in front of the stage monitors in the middle of the show so unfortunately the only pictures from this trip were the ones I took with my phone. I don't think they turned out too badly. Next time I will have a real camera again.

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