One Week On

No, that's not me. But give me a couple of months.

It's now been a week since I came to Barcelona. A lot has happened, very little has happened. A day after my last post, I went to see my friend Julieta, who was over from London for the weekend, at the club Apolo. Thanks to the blagging skills acquired during my postgraduate in the London University of Life, I managed to sneak in for free. So the tuition fees were well worth it. The rest of the weekend was a series of coincidences as well as a mini-roadtrip, a family visit and a broken neck (almost).

Michally, me and Jen

My friend Jen, who I met at Bestival, has been driving the tour van of this amazing band from New York called Holy Hail. They are, coincidentally, supporting Bonde Do Role in their European tour and were to stop over in Barcelona for a night before heading to Madrid. So Jen + Bonde Do Role= amazing friends I get to see over here!
I went to meet Jen at the place where they were staying for the night. This was the really nice, non-hippie (yes, I'm traumatized) flat of a friend of Cat, Holy Hail's singer. Another coincidence: one of my random Flickr contacts is Gerard, who runs a website called www.icanteachyouhowtodoit.com, the Barcelonian equivalent of sites like The Cobra Snake or DirtyDirtyDancing. I had myspaced him before coming here in order to find out a bit about the city and stuff to do, so it was to my surprise to find out that, coincidentally, the flat was his. What are the odds.

Welcome to Spain

We went to see him DJ at a place called Moog, and set off to Madrid the next morning. Seven hours of amazing terracota landscapes, grey rolling hills, beautiful little towns, houses in the middle of nowhere that were the exact same colour of the soil they were built on... at times I felt as if I was in Don Quixote, at times I felt as if I was in Star Wars, in the bit where they kill Darth Vader's mum before he becomes Darth Vader.
As soon as we got to Madrid we headed off to the venue, a place called Moby Dick which looks like a ship from the outside. While Holy Hail were soundchecking I waited downstairs since I didn't want their soundcheck to be my first experience of the band. Bonde arrived and it was like a little bit of my London had arrived with them. Marina's addicted to that pink Nintendo DS! (Julia: me and Pedro tried to call you but you're an asshole and didn't answer).

Holy Hail

Now Holy Hail. They were amazing. Cat (former Fannypack member) and Kevin provide the vocals (he also plays the keyboards), while Michally does the bass and Alex the drums. They sound like an optimistic and poppy new-wave (can that exist?) mixed with the best of what could be described (by me) as dreamy electro-indie-pop. Or something like that. Cat's voice takes turns between a pretty, almost naive-sounding vocal style and some unexpected but well-placed high-pitched screams. It reminds me a bit of Love is All (another band I've been obsessing about). In fact, take no notice of this attempt at a band review: I liked their music, it made me dance, I like listening to it at home and they're nice. That's all I need from a band.

Bonde in full swing

The gig went great, I got up on stage in Bonde's set (typical) and properly went off on one, perfecting my "circular head-banging" so well that I'm still nursing a sore neck. Talk about dedication to the cause.
After the gig we stayed at a friend of Gerard's who used to be Pedro Almodovar's assistant. After years of living in shit-holes, I can really say I find it hard not to gawp when I find myself in places as amazing as his flat. It was beautiful. So there are people in the world who can own a place like this before their mid-thirties! I thought the only way was the loser hedonistic squatter hippie way. Right.

After the neck-breaking, head-banging incident

Next morning I woke up early and met my cousin for breakfast. He's also a successful, talented, hard-working gay in his mid-thirties with a beautifully decorated flat. What is it with gay guys? It is now more apparent to me than ever that they're always the good-looking, well turned-out, stylish men with a great taste in interior design. Why oh why wasn't I born a gay boy?
After another long and entertaining drive back to Barcelona, we met up with Bonde again at the Apolo 2. I got a text from a friend of Marisa's called Pablo, who she had said I should definitely meet. It said he was at the venue, so I texted back saying I'd meet him after the gig. It turns out that, coincidentally, Holy Hail were friends with him, so I ended up meeting him by default... He did say after we met: "wasn't it you who was dancing like a maniac on stage?" Oops I did it again.

Ouch.

Some other bits and bobs:

• I'm finding myself looking at things with a Londoner point of view, which is weird considering I'm Colombian. It makes me feel like a twat.
• Spotted: THREE fit boys. Woop! (I'm not counting the gayboys cos that's a given)
• I found two burgeoning mini-dreadlocks at the back of my head. Is it the water here? That would explain a lot.
• I'm trying to keep a positive outlook overall. Despite this, I'm finding it all a bit harder than I thought, leaving all my friends, my life, my work... (oh no, scrap that, I wasn't working actually) But really, starting a new life when you haven't really chosen to do so is quite challenging. I miss every single one of you. But let's keep things 'happy'.
  

(All photos by www.icanteachyouhowtodoit.com)