finleyknight SouthAmerican TOUR Blog

Thursday-

Yesterday, we met a drummer in the hostel and asked if he wanted to join us on stage for tonights show.  He was more than thrilled to take part and so we spent a good part of the day rehearsing.  While rehearsing, we then met a singer whose voice rivals the likes of the late Whitney Houston.  We immediately learned 4 new songs so that we could also bring her up on stage to sing.  Also, Daniel provided us with a keyboard for the night, which was huge for us at this point.

 The venue, Mo’Bar, is in a really cool spot of the city, and close enough to walk to from where we are at.  We packed up the gear and walked there around 10pm for sound check.  After we finished setting up, we ate upstairs with Daniel at the roof-top bar.  We had a couple hours to kill.  Our set didn’t start until about 3am again.  The crowd at this place was pretty young and full of college students.  They had karaoke going all night before we got on which rocked.  I may or may not have gotten up to sing some Michael Jackson.  Right as we were about to step back on stage to start, about 20 of our new friends from the hostel showed up together, which was the highlight for us.  The show was one of the best received fk shows in a long time.  Afterwards, we walked around and handed out cd’s to everyone that we could.  This is a great way to meet new people.   We met a group of people that invited us to drink some Mate (mah-tay) with them in the park tomorrow.  It is a traditional herbal drink of argentina.  Can’t wait.

We stayed till the place closed around 6 am and then took a taxi back.  It’s pretty early in the morning, I’m heading to sleep.

-connor

When we arrived last night around 10pm, we walked outside of the bus terminal in Cordoba City and some young kids, ages 7 or 8, were out helping people get cabs.  We gave them the change we could, and then headed to Aldea Hostel.  Pretty hungry, we grabbed some food around the corner, then returned to meet some other guests of where at Aldea.  We stayed up chatting with the other travelers and then got some rest.  Today was pretty uneventful.  The city is huge and reminds us a lot of buenos aires.  We spent the day working on this new video that we are attempting to upload, but with the current wifi, it may take approximately 20+ hours to upload.  Hopefully we’ll figure something out soon.  We spotted a Subway last night and so we had to check it out today for lunch. It was good but tasted way different.  Jd was slightly upset that there wasn’t an ice dispenser in the drink machine.  

Back at the hostel, many people were cooking and hanging out on the patio and so we joined in.  There are people from all over the world staying here.  There’s also a bar in the hostel, so we set up and played some music for the party. Three shows later this week in Cordoba.

-connor

It’s sunday night and we are on our way to Cordoba City.  Last night’s show was amazing.  We didn’t know what to expect exactly, especially because our set wasn’t until 3am.  After sound check we had about 7 hours to kill and the club didn’t re-open until around midnight, so we went back to the hotel to hang out.  Daniel, our more-or-less south american Tour Manager, met us for dinner with his friend Charlie, who had helped us with the sound check.  Dinner was great- we worked on our spanish.  We met back up around 2 and the club was still pretty empty.  Then all of the sudden a wave of people filed in just before 3am.  We started a little late and played until almost 5 for a pretty big crowd of a couple hundred.  The set went really well.  Afterwards, we met a lot of new friends and ended up going to the ‘late-night’ bar that is open until 9am…(slightly different than late-night spots back home).  All in all it was a great night.  We had some of the world’s greatest hot chocolate for breakfast and then went to sleep.

 Today we explored more of the city before departing for the bus terminal. When we arrived, we were delayed because for some reason they couldn’t print our ticket and we ended up chasing the bus down as it was departing.  A 3 hour journey to Cordoba City, avatar is on..i’m pumped.  

-Connor

This morning around 7am we arrived via bus to Bell Ville City, Cordoba, Argentina.  We got off the bus with our backpacks and mini drums set packed ever so cleverly, we hopped in a cab and were off to hotel Italia.  It was still dark out but the sun was coming up.  We showed up and the nice lady behind the front desk, Nancy, made us some hot chocolate and croissants.  We quickly ate and went straight to bed to get some rest for the show tonight.  We got up mid-day and explored the city. It was completely dead.  We got some lunch at a spot called “Come Back”, which was interesting.  After lunch we ran into some instrument trouble with our converters and transformers and more or less, one of my keyboards lit on fire..  We went to the local music shop and addressed the situation.  Later in the afternoon, we met up with a guy by the name of Charlie, who brought us to Bar33, the venue that we are playing tonight.  Charlie helped us set up, and we sound checked.  This place is really awesome.  They put up large writing on their front windows saying something along the lines of “All the way from the US, FinleyKnight”.  Tonight should be fun because we get to play really late and so we are doing a live set, and a hybrid DJ/live set afterwards.  We’re excited to break out some new material.  Also, my phone stopped working.  New video and new music coming soon.

-connor

Leaving for Bell Ville City tonight. 

We had time to kill so Jd and I spent the day checking out Recoletta.  We walked about an hour to Buenos Aires’ famous cemetery. The Mausoleums line skinny paths like buildings in a small city.  There are so many different turns, one could easily get lost in this maze.  The moment we walked inside we saw a black cat staring at us.  It was sitting in front of a tall mausoleum as if it were guarding the deceased inside.  Spooky stuff.  Despite this, the cemetery is quite beautiful. After wandering around, and seeing the famous grave of Evita and her family, we left and went to eat.  Compliments of our good friend, Riley, we tried some unbelievable chorripans con chimichurri (con chimichonga -JD).  On our way back to Palermo, we took the long route by accident and ended up walking through the fabric district.  I felt like I was at 38th and 8th again.  After passing about 5,000 shops, all selling vibrant colors of fabric and linens, I wondered how they are all in business. Regardless, it was a very cool area to walk through.  

We packed up our things quickly and made our way to Retiro, the bus terminal.  We are told by many that this is the most dangerous part of Buenos Aires, especially at night.  We arrived around 11pm (our bus was at midnight) with our belongings on our backs, fronts and sides.  We sort of felt like targets, but to our expectation, everyone we encountered was nothing but nice and helpful.  The bus ride is about 7 hours, so we should arrive to the hostel just in time for breakfast.  Excited to play in Bell Ville City tomorrow.

-connor

All the shops were closed today.  I believe it is labour day for the Argentines.  I found this out after walking many blocks to clean my single outfit, only to find the place locked up.  Seems as if I’ll have to sport it another day.  Days like today, with no show, instead of exploring another section of the city, we find ourselves glued to the computer, editing footage.  We love it though.  Despite this, I saw a clown in the park today.  He was dancing to some music and so I started to film him.  He did not like this apparently and started to yell in spanish at me.  I ran from him into the crowd apologizing. Later, we checked out a Brazilian restaurant that served an amazing rice and beans dish.  John tried to pay and we found out the the ATM had given him a fake bill.  Strike two was that the only other bill we had was ripped and taped together.  Luckily, they accepted this.  Also, we saw a hyena today, we think.  You’ll see footage of this soon enough.

-connor