SP Noise Fest - Mike

OH SHIT, I forgot something about Goiania ... as soon as we were done playing and extremely geeked out on adrenaline, the major network in Brazil grabbed us so we could be interviewed on TV by the Brzilian version of Annie Lennox. Very surreal ... I think we were mostly trying not to say anything stupid. When they asked us about what our sound was like, we quoted the blurb from the flyer, some shit about battery and melodic chord approaches the mic. We were all sweaty and breathing heavy, its was funny.

Oh and I also forgot to mention that we were mentioned in the Brazilian RollingStone.

Our flight back to SP was OK but we were all kind of salty, or at least I was. I watched Heavy Petting on the plane, which made me laugh. We had little info about the show that night but we figured we'd head back to Sergios house, be able to nap for a while, then head to the show. Gabriella picks us up and tells us "Nap? clean clothes? Shower? No No we have to go traight to the show. Time to work."

We headed straight to the venue to drop off our gear, which was a dance club similar to Axis before they merged it with Avalon. We met Ze', the stage manager, who was the fucking man. We found out we were playing first and were supposedly going on at 4:30pm, and that we would have a good amount of time to soundcheck which we were relieved to hear. The place was full of some of the most imposing bouncers I've ever seen in my life, all of them 6 foot plus, dressed like Brazilian mafiosos, black suits with blood red ties, and some really manacing stares at you when you went by. They took us next door to an even nicer churrascaria than the one we went to before. The guys from Helmet were finishing up as we walked in but we got to meet them quickly, then we ate like motherfuckers again. I had salmon and it was delicious. Jay was still pale and twitchy.

We then headed back to the club, hung out while Helmet did one of the most meticulous sound checks I've ever witnessed. Their sound guy was funnys hell trying to communicate with the stage crew, but he was not cutting any corners. They had a room backstage for the bands, but it was really just a tiny dressing room. This ended up being great in contrast to Goiania becuase there they had all these separate rooms for the bands and there wasn't a ton of interaction. Here, we had that tiny room, and a balcony to the upper right of the stage and thats it, so all the bands got to chill together and party.

We ended up going on I think sometime around 6 or 6:30. We've learned that punctuality is not high priority here, which has stressed us out at times, but has become kind of refreshing to our over punctual American ways. The club has a dj night that starts at 12pm sharp though and we needed to be up and out of there by then. The room was decently full when we started, maybe 100-150 people, as it was just getting underway and people were still showing up. It gradually filled up as we played.

It was alot harder to read the crowd in contrast to Goiania so we weren't quite sure how it went over. There was a definite feeling of people being like "Wha?". We definitely had their attention tho. And honestly, given the circumstances and our state of being, once again I thought we did pretty damn good. Jay didn't barf on his drum set, which would have been unfortunate as they were Helmets drums, but would have been pretty rock and roll none the less. What made the show much more easy going for me was that the stage sound was top notch, and I could hear everybody really well. Ze is the man and knows his shit. The crew there were really efficient and also knew their shit. I forgot to be a rockstar and throw my pick into the crowd when I was done, but I'll remember at some point, probably at the most inappropriate moment.

We cleaned up and headed backstage. Then we got expeealidocious drunk. Anne and Jay went and got interviwed by Brazilian MTV. Anne asked if they wanted to speak to me and Dan as well. Not interested. Delete.

They brought us constant supplies of Beer, whiskey and Pizza. This band the Ganjas from Chile played after us. Sort of like Kyuss, a little more rock, less groovy. Helmet showed up backstage, and we started drinking with them. Page Hamilton (the singer and central guy) is a crazy dude, really animated and friendly. Anne was woozy, he is a big idol of hers. But we all got along great, the rest of the guys in helmet were just as friendly. We all did shots of Whiskey right before they went on.

The place was packed fo them, the rocked it out with their cock out. They played songs from all there albums, and they played the one song I absolutely wanted them to play. By now, the vaselines had showed up backstage so we were chilling with them. The vaselines had two of the guys from Belle and Sebastian as there backing band, and another dude from Scotland playing drums. Bob and Mike, the bassist and drummer, were awsome guys, probably the most unpretentious huge rockstars in the world.

Helmet finshed, the Vaselines went on. I was marvelling at the fact that we were still awake and functional given the lack of sleep and food and amount of booze. I took a breather, but quickly realized that the only way I could keep going was to keep drinking. As soon as I stopped, I started to shut down. Roger that.

One of the coolest guys we met backstage was this dude Dr. Fresh, who was Hemets guitar tech. He was from Minneapolis and actually had common friends with Jay. He had a giant ink stamp that said Fresh. His thing was that he stamed people with it and then took their picture. We all got freshed. I actually think my neck is still freshed. He also had a coalition of the spillage, where he took your picture as you spilled beer all over yourself. I am also a member.

Random note, when you jump into the shot of a picture at the last minute in Brazil, you are lame and they call it pulling a Robert. ???

It didn't happen as quickly as in Goiania, but gradually, people started coming up to us giving us props, mostly guys from other bands as we were mostly content to hang out backstage for most of the fest. Page told us he only caught the last half of Chicane, but really liked it. We haded out CDs and stickers to everyone we could.

We saw Sergio off and on through the night, and he looked haggard and stressed out, which is always the unfortunate lot of the guy who is running the show. When the vaselines ended, sometime after 11, I was reminded about how important it was for us to be competely out of there by midnight, and from the look of the bouncers I didn't want to fuck with this.

I don't know how but we managed to make the place look like a huge rock show didn't just happen and there weren't just hundreds of people there getting wasted, which was an amazing feat.

We all hung out outside for a while waiting for the van to come pick us up. It was one of the most slobbering, sloppy, abnoxious drunken scenes I've had the pleasure to be a part of. The guys from Helmet made us promise to hang out with them later. We were the last band to leave. On the way home, Anne was blabbering some of the most random incoherent shit I've ever heard in my life, and she just kept going, like a machine.

We were pretty exhausted from carrying all the equipment out of the bar, and we were feeling pretty weird about the scene at Sergio's house, but we crammed into a cab (me, Jay, Anne and Dan all in the back in a calumet sandwich) and headed to a bar. Helmet, the vaselines, their crews, and a bunch of the amplitude tour guys (and gals) were there. We had to plead with the bartender to serve us drinks because they were closing, but they obliged. We drank Caipirinhas, and more debauchery ensued. We were a moving mass of drunken messiness.

After a while, the vaselines left, and we walked helmet back to their hotel. We said goodbye for about 30 minutes outside the hotel, headed back to Segios and crashed. That was the end of SP noisefest. Sergio was getting up early to fly back to Goiania with helmet, as they were playing Sunday night as the last band of the fest there.