in-transit #2

Alright!! We are finally here. After 3 different flights and traveling for 30hrs straight, we are now in Brazil!! I'm typing this from our hotel room in Goiania. Our flights down here weren't that bad. Actually the worst flight was from Boston to NYC. The plane's AC was busted, and it was really roasting in there. JFK in NYC is also really weird as they don't have WI-FI posted around.....we asked several different people where we could log on last night...we had a 3 hour layover...and nobody had any clue. Eventually we take off around 11pm and fly through the night. The flight down wasn't bad, Dan, Anne and Mike were able to get some sleep in....I however, can't really sleep on planes, so I was really only able to sleep for about 2hrs.

Flying into Sao Paulo was crazy....the city is huge and sprawls much like NYC and/or LA. We actually haven't seen any of it yet, as we did not leave the airport today...except to go outside for a brief moment to meet up with our good friend and booking agent, Gabriela. She helped take some of our spare luggage back to her place so we wouldn't have to take it to Goiania. We were told on the phone that we could only check one bag per person, and that the 2nd checked bag would 4-5USD per kilo. As Dan, Mike, and myself all had to bring gear down(guitars, pedal boards, cymbals)...this was going to be real expensive as we would have to pay going there and back. Amazingly enough as we started to check the bags, the woman at the counter didn't say a word(probally because she couldn't speak english) as we kept checking bags....she was really cool, and I think she let it slide. We'll see on the way back.

Sao Paulo airport, btw, is crazy. People everywhere....crazy lines, our flight kept changing gates on us, and it's definably a challenge to try and listen to flight announcements over the PA when you don't speak a word of the language. The flight to Goiania was about 1hr and a half......it was actually a really nice flight with some really great scenery. As we got into Goiania there were some thunderstorms in the area, and we got to see some really awesome lightning. When we arrived we were so happy to see our friends Fernando(an old friend of Anne and mine. He went to Mich Tech with us and now lives with his family in Goiania!), and Sergio(head of amplitude records, our label in Brazil). Unfortunately, due to our flight being 2hrs late, we had to say hi and then goodbye to Fernando as he had to get back to his family...but we will be seeing him tomorrow for lunch as well as he will be going to the festival with us.

Sergio then took us to our hotel, where we were able to shower and then he took us out to the sight of the festival to check things out. Sergio is INSANE people....while he is helping us out, he is also assisting/translating for Helmet. So Sergio meets up with us tonight, and then he's getting on a 7am flight tomorrow to go back to Sao Paulo to meet up with Helmet. Sergio will be with Helmet in Sao Paulo until Sunday, when he flys back to Goiania with Helmet as they close out the fest on Sunday. After that, he will then fly right back to Sao Paulo to meet up with us as we start the rest of our tour!! Insane!!

Anyways, Anne, Mike and I just got back from checking out the site of the Goiania Noise Festival(Dan has decided to party with Sergio all night). All I can saw at this point is that it's fucking insane. The place is huge!! The hall can hold up to 5,000 people, and we are on the main stage at 9pm tomorrow night. At this point, I can really fathom the whole thing. None of us took our camera's tonight, but we will have our video camera's and still camera's to document all of tomorrow's actives.

More soon!

-Jason and CH