Three years ago, FADER headed to Mexico City for story on the city’s then burgeoning rock scene. It has since burgeoned. Chikita Violenta, a large part of the story, have signed to Canada’s Arts and Crafts and just completed a tour in the US. We asked them to check in with their impressions of the States, which they have below. Catch up with part one and read part two after the jump. And watch out for their debut Tre3s, out January 25th.
We all grow up thinking touring is private jets, beautiful women, glamor, fans screaming your name...unfortunately it's about hotel rooms and buses AND in our case it was one hotel room and one van, not very glamorous, eh? I would like to publicly praise one of the greatest invention known to man: PRICELINE. Oh dear Priceline you have given us so many wonderful moments on this tour, remember the 32 dollar hotel in Omaha? Even your mistakes were brilliant. Remember upgrading us from a two star hotel to a five star because of overbooking? Yes we shared many wonderful nights thanks to your wisdom. Oh but alas the greatest hotel room didn't arrive to us through your infinite wisdom...The Nugget in Sparks Nevada!! Hello... empty? casino action, ok maybe it wasn't the greatest hotel but we definitely had the crowd cheering us on at the roulette table. I don't know if it was because we're not used to gambling but we got our asses murdered. The only winner that night was Ra Ra's Rebecca... I think she read some books where they teach you how to count cards or something. Anyways the reason why this place was heaven to us was the FREE BOOZE for gamblers!! Sure I lost 20 dollars, but I'm pretty sure that my drinks would have cost me like 10 times more... bottom line we are moving to Nevada and open that taco truck.
And talking about tacos... we got our first serious beer bellies ever! Or beer “cheeks” in the case of Cheech, haha. Some of us are kinda proud of them; at least for now! We give shit to each other constantly about these premier, natural, live-saving cushions we’ve “brewed” these last weeks. We do jokes like: “Hey man, have you noticed you have’t got a waist any more? It’s like your ass has somehow merged with your kidneys and lower back, haha!” We even developed a term for it in Spanish, "riñonalga". Actually, we give so much shit to eacho ther about everything. What’d you expect? It’s like one of those jokes, “What do you get when you put five Mexicans to a room for 23+ days?” Yep. Mexican humor is a mix between dark humor, finding a double sense in every word you say and ending your phrase with “pendejaaaaaaa”.
One of the weirdest places we went was the Holiday Inn Topeka... I mean it was a pretty cool place but it had a massive water park in the lobby!! So while you were checking in there were like 200 kids running around, screaming and doing "water bombs"...we also couldn't help remembering and re-enacting one of the rock movie staples so we went on a mission to meet "real people from Topeka" and then go to the top of the water slide and shout "I am a golden god" before jumping into the water...our first option definitely was "I'm on drugs" but it may have been frown upon having all those kids in the pool and we didn't want to be arrested and deported... at least not at the beginning of the tour!
It is common knowledge that opening acts are only fed on beer and water. Hard liquor and/or hot meals are almost unthinkable. And boy do you guys have an amazing array of this sweet nectar up here. The amount of local beers and microbreweries across the territory is pretty wicked. We’re not used to sour or bitter beers like a lot of people here. We go for more standard lagers o delicate ambers and darks (and we’re proud of them!). Yet, it’s really fun to go to a different bar every night and just try something new out of the tap. The fun never ends! Haha. Although, we have to hand it to Reno; nothing can beat the 1 USD happy-hour PBRs off the tap we had at there... and we also hear PBR is the official sponsor of the humans called 'hipsters' so I guess that is cool, right?
We played San Francisco last. Did a gig at this pretty cool place called the Bottom of the Hill. What a place San Francisco. Amazing vibe, amazing town, amazing mix of cultures and tastes. Hope we can go back soon. The next day we took a flight to Mexico, slept a few hours, and then had to go play a huge festival called Corona Capital, with Pixies, Interpol, Echo and the Bunnymen, Foals, Temper Trap and many more. It was a cool way to end this month-long tour, probably. At least we got an awesome catering: premium tequila, beers everywhere, Red Bull, veggies, hot meals, the works! Now we know why it’s important to keep some bands on beer and water. I guess we made it to the stage in a pretty bad stage... Haha.