manu

i promised a guest 'stache in my last post; however, that program has been pre-empted in favor of a report from a crazy concert in mexico city on sunday march 26, 2006 (same day as my sister's b-day. happy birthday, barb!)

as part of the Festival Internacional por Agua (International Festival for Water), the city hosted a free concert in the zocalo (city center/square - same location for AMLO rally) starring Los Estrambóticos, Panteón Rococó, and the headliner . . . Manu Chao.

a quick background story: while working in heidelberg, germany during the month of january, i saw a poster advertising what i thought was a night with manu chao. although i did not know much about mr chao (can i call him that?), i was assured that he was quite the performer and a good musician. based on this information, and a quick internet search, it seemed like he was the real deal. i am an easy sell. i was excited that i was going to get a chance to see this international music star in heidelberg, of all places. well, as the 'concert' date approached, it became clear that i was not going to have time to check it out because i had too much work to do. when i later saw the poster, i realized two things: 1) i had the date of the show mixed up, and 2) it wasn't manu chao live, it was a "tribute to manu chao". they suckered me with the ole small font-big font trick. the "a tribute to" was about times roman 10, and MANU CHAO was times roman 5000. regardless, i was duped by some german club promoters. all i really missed was some DJ spinning manu's music all night . . . so, really i didn't lose out too much.

you can imagine, then, how excited i was when i realized upon my arrival to mexico that not only was manu chao coming to mexico city, but that it was a free concert in the zocalo. i love big crowds (usually), and, again, it was free. the following is my helter skelter account of my evening with manu and the mayhem that ensued.

i got to the zocalo with 2 friends (both female) around 4pm, based on an estimated start time for the concert of 6pm. the zocalo was already packed, and was rocking about 80,000 people strong. after grabbing some food, walking around the square to scope out a good spot, we made our way into the crowd.


the picture above captures the calm before the storm. by this time, we're about 100,000 people strong, with no room to move. a quick survey of the crowd revealed: punked-out kids, a plethora of che guevara shirts (don't get me started on this), red stars, black masks (zapatista supporters), enough camouflage gear to clothe a real army, piercings galore, and A LOT of people fucked up (pardon my language). at one point, there was a crew of 5-8 kids behind us, each with a small rag bunched up in their fingers and pushed up to their nose, sniffing in all the wonderfully aromatic vapors of their favorite shoe glue. fantastic!

in general, however, i was digging the crowd. good energy, excitement, all walks of life, etc. this quickly changed just before 6pm when the first band started. apparently, the two bands not named manu chao were both ska bands. not a big fan of ska. based on the reaction of the crowd to the first song, i was a minority of miniscule proportions. the whole crowd around us went nuts and started gyrating and jamming to the music. this sounds cool, but at the same time, everyone was swaying in unison because of the sheer mass of humanity, and you had to spend the majority of your time making sure you didn't fall. i was not into the mosh-ing (which started right in front of me at one point, and i nearly punched a kid when he got too close to me), so i basically spent the first 15 mins of the concert making sure that i wasn't crushed and that my (much smaller) friends were OK. after about 10 mins, the 3 of us exchanged a look of solidarity: it was time to make our way to another part of the zocalo.

after catching a river of people flowing out of the crowd, we managed to regroup and find a much calmer area from which to enjoy the show. rather than re-hash the remaining parts of the concert, i will say that the set that manu chao and company did was really fun and well worth the trip. he's an older guy (40s-ish), but still jams and dances around stage (and not in a creepy way like the rolling stones). his personal connection to his music and overall enjoyment while performing is infectious. final estimate of people by the time manu chao performed: 200,000. final analysis from the sage 'stache: well done manu.

despite how good manu chao was, there was still some serious problems with the crowd. i've selected 3 random tidbits of information that i found disturbing and/or funny. i saved the worst for last . . .



+ grab-ass: one of the ladies i was hanging out with got a full one-handed ass grab at one point. she was pissed off and actually kicked the dude as he walked by. oddly enough, he didn't stop to discuss his action or her reaction. another woman i know who was at the show, had a gentleman jab his thumb into her butt. absolutely shocked (naturally), she turned around, and not only did he stick around to see her reaction, he was giggling. seriously, what's wrong with this guy? who thumb gooses some unsuspecting poor guera in the middle of a crowd? this girl is still disturbed by what transpired. as am i.

+ hypocrisy: one of the over-arching themes of the performers was anti-privatization of utilities (specifically water), and there was also a constant reminder that they were sympathetic to the zapatista movement. the lead "singer" (i hesitate to use that word for this guy because he screamed a lot) of the second band even started the set with a black mask on - a trademark of the zapatistas. at one point, a guy came on stage and held a poster up of a masked zapatista as he ranted and raved for several minutes. more power to the people. that's all great, as far as i'm concerned. i don't know enough about mexico's problems to prescribe a solution, and if they are convinced that they should not privatize water, then i'm sure they have some good arguments. i'm even down with the zapatistas, for the most part. their entire message, however, was diminished in my eyes when my friends and i decided to take a quick break and grab a (non-alcoholic) drink near the zocalo. actually, i just wanted some ice cream. naturally, we ended up at . . . mcdonald's! if there is a better symbol than mcdonald's for capitalism, yankee imperialism, globalization, and other existing "evils" in the world today, then i'm not sure what it is. despite the anti-privatization, anti-globalization message delivered repeatedly to the crowd through lyrics, interludes, posters, etc., and despite the fists raised in support of this powerful message, mcdonald's was PACKED. isn't this the type of place that a zapatista-loving leftist crowd should boycott/avoid? apparently not. even zapatistas love american hamburgers! (for the record, i just had ice cream. i don't eat meat products at mcdonald's any more.) who would have guessed it? i couldn't help but get a good chuckle from the red stars and che "supporters" that waltzed right into the golden arches.

+ the worst display of humanity: this award goes to the gentlemen that would piss into empty water bottles and hurl them across the crowd to ruin some unsuspecting person's evening. this award is accepted on behalf of all pissers out there by the group of gentlemen that a friend witnessed pissing into the same poncho (it rained for the first hour of the concert), only to see them tie it up and then chuck that into the crowd. seriously, who throws a poncho full of 3 people's urine into a crowd of people? this is perhaps the grossest thing that i've ever witnessed in person. fortunately, i avoided all flying urine. i cannot write much more about this subject, as it is too disturbing.


on to the 'stache of the day . . . we're back to another shot of El Bigote, and this one was taken at the conclusion of the concert, on the walk to the subway on my way back home. based on all that happened over the previous 6 hours, i call this the "survival 'stache."

** a man with a 'stache never throws urine at another person. **