The Mars Volta @ Personal Fest, Buenos Aires
November 5, 2004 – Buenos Aires (played on “Drunkship” on Lanterns”)
Federico
Here goes my story:
11/5- 9.30 AM:
I arrived to the hotel to wait for John, it was very cold, but what the hell… I waited there about 4 and 1/2 hours… and then went into the hotel, to drink some coffee.
I was with too girls, just doing nothing, waiting there, sitting at the bar…when, 15 minutes later, two white vans arrived…we got altered… too many people descended from those vans…then one of the girls who were with me said “I saw an affro”….OMG, it was Omar…I started to look for John, I thought that may be he was wearing a cap, I was looking through the window inside of the hotel. Well, all of them came into the hotel, but I still couldn’t see John…fuck. I was standing right there, close to the door and where they were reunited. Then, a guy with a dark blue cap, a biiiig jacket and two suitcases started to walk in my direction.
I was like “Ugh ugh… oh my, that’s John!”…I couldn’t believe it, then I ran to him and said “John, please”, gave him a marker and my booklet of Shadows collide, and he signed it. I took two pics. I don’t have them right now, I’ll post them later.
As I said yesterday, he was annoyed and a bit tired (not TOO tired, don’t worry). Then one of my friends said “Sorry John, we don’t want to bother you” and John replied “It’s ok, I’m just hungry”… after he signed our things I said “Thanks John, bye” and John “Bye”.
He took the elevator and went to his room.
I came out of the hotel and returned to my home.
IT WAS SO COOL TO MET HIM, ALTHOUGH I SAW HIM AND TALKED TO HIM JUST ABOUT 50 SECONDS
Here’s the reverse of my SCWP’s booklet signed by John
11/5- The gig:
I went to the festival at 6.30 PM, TMV was playing at 8.45 PM, so I kept right there at the main stage waiting for them. The previous bands were ok. Then, when it was the turn of Mars Volta, I got veeeeeery close to the stage, on the left, where John will be playing. While the staff was preparing the amps and the sound, a guy with that blue cap and big jacket, crossed the stage. Now he was also wearing the hood of his jacket, hehe, he didn’t want to be recognized, but I did, and started to shout “Frusciante! John Frusciante!” and then we (the crowd) started with: “Frusciaaaaaante…Frusciaaaaaante” hehe…that was cool.
Well, after that the lights turned off and TMV came into the stage. They were great, although I don’t like them. As soon as the show began, I looked at the left of the stage and, oh my, there was John, seated and looking to the guys playing. He kept shaking his head and all of his body during the concert, as a mad rocker. HE WAS ENJOYING THE SHOW, HE WAS REALLY HAPPY.
It was great to see John like that. His tireness just disappeared. Well, TMV continued playing and making the crowd go mad, and suddenly, John jump on the stage, wearing a grey grid shirt, using his sunburst strato; and jammed with them. He was cooooooool. After the jam they played another song, I think it was Cicatriz ESP
It was extremely great to see John playing again at live. I enjoyed it a lot, but the negative thing was that the show was TOO SHORT. I think it was 50 mins or less, all the people was saying “Come on! what the hell was it that short?” … but, cool anyways. John left the stage running and quickly. TMV left the stage too.
After them, it was the turn of PJ Harvey, she was awesome, she is really nice. And Josh had an exelent performance, he was pure energy, very cool.
Well, that’s all I have to say about John and the gig…. oh my god… I never typed that long. Sorry if I had any mistake.
NOTE: I’m ashamed about the following pics, they’re CRAP, the camera I used was crap…so I’m really sorry… I’m sure that the newspaper will publish some cool pics tomorrow. Be shure I’ll post them.
ok…here’s is a part that I didn’t tell you:
there was another girl (I didn’t know her), and she wanted to ask to John: “After the show, are you coming back to the hotel or are you leaving to Brazil?”, but she couldn’t speak in english, and she just said: “Tonight, here” twice. Obviously, John didn’t understand what the hell she was trying to say, and he went mad and said: “But, what you mean with ‘tonight here’ !!?”
Hehe, I laughed, I think it was funny.
