Las Vegas, NV,New Year's Eve 2002- 2003

I'm back from Vegas. I still can't believe what happened.

I didn't meet Anthony or the band but I went to the show on the 31st of December, very front row and I was just 2 meters away from him. This is too much.
I got backstage several hours before the concert even started, around 11 a.m. and I talked to the technical crew and hoped for a backstage pass but they kicked us out and asked us to leave. It sucked and I thought I had blown it. I had lost any hope and then, I was just wandering around the casino when suddenly I saw Blackie. He was there both nights, the 30th and 31st with the girl who won the VH1 BBQ contest and had the Peppers playing at her home. She's a nice girl.


Anyways... I sat with him for about an hour and he told me the most amazing stories and he even invited us a few beers . He's such a cool amazing guy and he told me all this stuff about how him and Anthony shared girls, a story about a French hooker, about how he met John Lennon and one of the Beach Boys picked him up when he was hitch hiking... Then he talked to me about his work as an actor, and said that Anthony's sister Jenny, could tell me more about him. So he called her and she came over and she's just so sweet, so open and kind hearted. After the beers we had together Blackie hugged me good bye and told me he would ask Anthony if I could meet him, but next day I saw Blackie and he didn’t mention anything so I didn’t want to push it.

Blackie and I

Jenny, Blackie and I

On the other hand, the show was the most amazing one I've ever witnessed. I guess partly because the venue was so tiny that it just felt pretty intimate. On a side by the stage Heidi Klum was sitting there and when 12 o'clock stoke, they had started to play “Venice Queen” but Anthony stopped and he said "happy New Year" and the guys kept on playing but he ran all over Heidi and kissed her and kissed her and kissed her. I have to say he looked really, really happy, there was this shine in his eyes on the New Year, and it was so sweet just how he threw himself at her. I felt so jealously happy for him. There were balloons falling over our heads and an inflatable sex doll going around the stage. It was such a special thing to spend the New Year in that concert.
John stopped playing and he kissed his girlfriend too, who was very sweet and told him to keep on playing. Flea's girl was there as well. Anthony was dancing so wildly that he fell on the drums and got himself hurt, he was bleeding badly and in the end he ripped his t-shirt off and the cut on his back was pretty big. Blackie said that Anthony was pretty happy with Heidi and that she's very nice. He also told me that AK had been heart broken from Yohanna and all the songs in BTW were about her (not that it wasn't obvious), but he confirmed the rumor that Anthony wanted to have kids and she wasn't ready. And many things more. I also got the set list, which someone from the crew handed to me at the end:

Guadalajara, Mexico, December 27th 2002

I met Carlo in Mexico on a Mexican sunny day. He was a beautiful Dutch tourist and the minute we saw each other we had quite an spectacular mutual physical attraction. It was just fireworks. He symbolized the prototype of physical perfection for me at that time. He had the cutest little nose ever and had a nose ring, two big tattoos on both biceps and long, long dreadlocks. *sigh*. We became lovers and he became somewhat a regular visitor to my country.

After years of not seeing each other, I got an e mail from Carlo telling me that he’s got two friends coming to Mexico and asking if I could give them some orientation around town and an incandescent light bulb flashed instantly over my head and I thought that their timing couldn’t have been better because the Chili Peppers had just announced two shows in Las Vegas for the New Year’s Eve in the end of 2002 and the awakening of 2003 and I had been desperately and unsuccessfully looking for somebody who would take shifts with me on the road trip from Guadalajara to Las Vegas. There was no way I could have driven for 3 days on my own because 1. the North of Mexico is the heartland of the biggest drug cartels of the country and therefore a massively military controlled area, and Mexico being the corrupted country it is, that’s nothing to feel cozy about; 2. even my uncommon common sense wouldn’t have allowed me to do it, not to mention my parents and 3. and most importantly, I couldn’t afford it

I e-mailed the Dutch boys and told them about this amazing road trip to Las Vegas I was planning to make, how amazing the north of Mexico is, and how much fun it would be to cross the border and spend the New Year’s in Las Vegas. I must have described it a lot better than I just did because they were thrilled and full of joy to do it. They arrived to my house late in the evening and next day at 6 am we were up and ready to hit the road, the poor boys still jetlagged. "Shark", Thaijs and me, leaving the motel room

It was such an amusing experience to suddenly spend so much time together with a couple of total strangers. Sometime during the first couple of hours I explained my real reason to be going to Las Vegas and I don’t think they were too thrilled about it at all but I promised that on the way back I would take them to a paradise beach in the Mexican coast of the Pacific Ocean and they seemed happy about it and decided to continue the trip with me and help me on my mission to meet Anthony.

The Dutch boys and I in the Hoover Dam driving back to Mexico

We took turns for the CD player, the deal was 1 album each. They were playing Johnny Cash and other Dutch bands and I was playing…well, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We spent the first night in Mexican soil, in Los Mochis, where I have an auntie that gave us accommodation and breakfast early next day.

We drove through the most amazing landscapes: roadrunner-style deserts with giant cactuses, dry reddish mountains and vultures feasting on road kill and all. We experienced the unavoidable military forces (3 times) who searched for narcotic substances underneath the car, inside our cigarette packages, and any possible hidden little corner, and asked about the strange concoction of passengers in our car. I pretended to be a foreigner too and not to speak any Spanish so they just let us go. When the night was falling and after a 2 hour car queue we crossed the border through Nogales and spent night two in Tucson, Arizona. We had dinner in the “Waffle house” and shared the Motel room and also the boys shared their fantasies of who would they drive 3 days for. We had a lot of fun just talking endlessly and they were just very curious about what was it that was so amazing about Anthony. I am sure they were sorry to ask. I didn't stop for an hour.
Next morning we were up by 7 am, the boys exhausted and I so excited, we drove through Phoenix, through the breathtaking Arizona desert and through the biggest traffic jam I’ve ever seen in my entire life: the one at the Hoover Dam. I Never understood why it took us more than 2 hours to cross the infamous dam, specially because there wasn’t much to see at night.
I was so nervous already, I had no life insurance, no ticket to the show, no idea of what I was doing, no car insurance either and it had been a painful 8 hour drive, it was cold, my urinary bladder was completely loaded and it was already too dark… and in the middle of the hopelessness a sudden explosion of light in the far distance: The city of Las Vegas where the Chili Peppers would be playing next day.

Buenos Aires, Argentina,October 16th 2002

Glue
Stuck to my shoes
Does anyone know why you play with an orange rind
You say you packed my things
And divided what was mine you're off to the mountain top
I say her skinny legs could use sun
But now I'm wishing
For my best impression
Of my best Angie Dickinson
But now I've got to worry
Cause boy you still look pretty
When you're putting the damage on

Don't make me scratch on you door
I never left you
For a banjo
I only just turned around for a poodle
And a corvette
And my impression
of my best Angie Dickinson
But now I've got to worry
Cause boy you still look pretty
When you're putting the damage on

I'm trying not to move
It's just you ghost
Passing through
I said
I'm trying not to move
It's just your ghost passing through
It's just your ghost
Passing through
And now
I'm quite sure
There's a light in you platoon
I never seen a light move
LIke yours
Can do to Me
So now I'm wishing
For my best impression
of my best Angie Dickinson
But now I've got to worry
Cause boy you still look pretty
To me
But I've got a place to go
I've got a ticket to your late show
And now I'm worrying cause even still
You sure are pretty
When you're putting the damage on
Yes
When you're putting the damage on
You're just so pretty
When you're putting the damage on

And this is not about Anthony and that's all I will say.

Guadalajara, Mexico, September 27th, 2002

No matter how much I scratched, Pepto-Bismol I swallowed, detox dieted, or even routine visited the doctor, three months later that funny feeling in my tummy was still persistent. It was in no way painful but annoying enough to make me fly all the way from London to Guadalajara. MEXICO!

Of all places, I went there because that was HOME. I needed to start bringing back all the stuff and crap I had accumulated in London for 2 years, and visiting my parents is always a bliss. Yeah… So I went in the middle of last weeks of school, and mother of coincidences, the RHCP were going to play in town.

I kissed mum and dad and then straight to the phone with my friend Lululita (bless her heart)who works in one of the most respected local newspapers. For my joy and delight she tells me she covers the Events and Culture section and she's been sent to the airport to cover the arrival of the band to the city. So I kindly offer to drive her.

I try to look my best, but jetlagged and in my “I don’t brush my hair” era I really didn’t look that great as the later photos reveal…
As we drive to the airport my hands start to get sweaty cold and my stomach has an anxiety attack and I feel the urge to run to a toilet. I peed.
Well, after all my friend was as clueless as I was, and excused herself for her truly outrageous emotional damage on my persona alluding to evil-promoters'-press-ditching-mastermind-strategies. Some guy at the airport confided us that the band had arrived the previous day.

So on the show day I was up again early enough to make sure I'd be the first person in line and get the very front-middle spot. And I was.

This time around for some unusual reason I got very hungry, and when my beloved friend Paula arrived, she brought me a torta to eat and a coke to drink that I was truly grateful for, just 10 minutes before the gates opened.

I don't know what Paulita found most surprising of all, if the fact that I dragged her to her first (and maybe last?) rock concert ever (she’s more of the bohemian type) or the fact that I skipped my classes, left my boyfriend in England and flew the Atlantic to see a man for hour and a half jumping up and down on stage to the rhythm of elating melodies. Just the previous night I went for a good cold beer with her and my dearest university teacher, mentor and friend, Don Gus, and saw them giving each other looks of disbelief when I secretly confessed them I was in the country pushed by the mysterious forces of platonic love...

I can't describe what I feel at the climatic moment when the lights turn off and the music starts playing. It's magical realism, it's soulful energy tickling in the feet and ears, it is poetry for the senses, and an instant gratification for the passionate heart. I don’t think any music has ever made me feel like that before.

I looked at my friend's face the minute Mr. K walked into the stage trying to anticipate the minute she'd faint... She was JUST FINE and I was probably as shocked that she didn't faint as she was of the fact that I felt any sort of attraction towards that particular man (she’s really into older dudes I think).
We tried to go through the concert defying the force of the moshpit. This time I made sure my hair was well tight.
I was waiting to see Paula's facial expression and opinion dramatically change when the glorious moment when Mr. K. religiously takes his top off (to reveal his amazingly shaped and tattooed body) came. Strangely in a RHCP show, that moment never came and that's the only reason I could find to explain my friend's skepticism to believe she was looking at the finest man walking this Earth.

It didn't matter. For the hour and a half that the show lasted, my soul and my heart found the peace they needed. Then it was over and I was happy and smiled and thought that whatever bug had bitten me, the itching would disappear soon.
Three days later I'd be flying back to England, back to my baby's arms, finish school and then go to Argentina on holidays with him.

London, UK, June 26th 2002

I don't know why I went to line up so early. Obviously something deep in my unconsciousness pushed me to. Maybe it was fate. Maybe it was coincidence. Maybe it was the fact that I know I am short and I just wanted to get a good view but either way I was sitting outside the London Arena on a "Summer day" (if there's such thing in England) at 8 o'clock in the morning “standing in line to see the show tonight...”Well sitting is more like it.

It's a very strange phenomenon me and going to concerts. I sat there for probably 10 hours with no need for food or drink and the excitement even probably prevented me from even wanting to go to the toilet. I didn't take a pee or a poo until the show was well over.

The strange thing is that I didn't know what the excitement was all about. I only knew who the Red Hot Chili Peppers were until my then beloved boyfriend tortured me with their rather loud music before we went to sleep. It was our ritual to go to sleep with music on. But my boyfriend wasn't there to go with me to the concert and instead I went with my beloved friend Joaco. He just came 1 hour before the show to find his front place in line well guarded.


I only got into the RHCP music to be able to memorize the lyrics to their tunes so I'd be able to get into the mood in the concert because if there's something that I LOVE is scrrrrrrreaming and singing loudloudloud, no matter how much my throat hurts. So I went to the gig with my cd player and the Californication album trying to memorize the last lines just in time for my inaudible performance along with the band and the crowd.

When Joaco arrived he told me interesting stuff about the band that I absolutely ignored. Like I was lucky to see the original line up. Or semi original, since the original guitarist died of a heroin overdose. And that the actual guitarist almost nearly died to another heroin overdose. And that the lead singer was hooked on it too and apparently so was the bassist... Well, isn't that what they say rock 'n roll is all about?

Finally the doors opened and we ran our way to the front row. We made it, left side of the stage, "in front of Flea", Joaco said.

We went through the opening act who were really killing me softly with their songs, and everyone else around me was dying slowly too, and people started to get very anxious and violent and anxious, anxious, anxious and at some point I was finding it hard to breathe.

The opening act left the stage SOAKED and INJURED from all the bottle-coin-and-whatever-object-they-could-find throwing from the audience. I couldn't help but to feel sorry for them.

Gwyneth Paltrow appeared on stage and sat on a side just in front of us.

Shortly after she graced the stage with her presence, the lights went off and the initial riffs started.
The crowd went WILD-CRAZY-OUT-OF-CONTROL. People turned from a human mass into a homogenic animal beast. I started suffering the euphoria. Already and so early the crowd surfers were flying and swimming over my head.
I got my head pulled, my neck twisted, face slapped, my breasts elbowed, my toes deadly squashed, my legs paralyzed and unable to move, not because of the excitement but because there was literally no place for them to even bend.

The second the band got on stage the whole London arena was pushing their way to the front. The laws of Physics say that two bodies can't occupy the same space at the same time. Not to mention over +5000 souls. And that was only the beginning. The drummer, the guitarist and the bassist were in their spots.

Then a very manly figure walked into the center front of the stage and the euphoria metamorphosed into hysteria as the first notes of a song called "By the way" came out from this man's voice.

Everything froze. I didn't mind not breathing. I didn't mind the immobility. I didn't mind my neck breaking down from the weight of somebody floating on my head and for that matter I didn't mind the unbearable amount of physical pain I was put under. From the contiguous galaxy I heard my friend saying "I am sure Gwyneth is wetting her undies just looking at Kiedis" . Looking at who? I didn't know who Kiedis was but I was given no choice but to figure it out myself.

I remember seeing his silhouette through the back light. It was one of those miraculous/sacred visions. The light seemed to be glowing out of his body, out of his skin, out of his pores. A source of radiant energy himself. I was enchanted. Those Lenny Kravitz lyrics popped right into my head: "All of my life where have you been..."

It was the too-much-pain-to-bear situation that broke the hypnotism. My long hair got stuck to one of the head surfers' zippers and my head was going along. It became really too much in spite of my effort to keep the spot to contemplate the beautiful landscape that man was.

We left to a safer spot and I stayed under the spell from the distance.

I had been to many rock shows before... and never ever left a venue feeling the way I was feeling .I could not explain it. What was happening to me? What was all that adrenaline running furiously through my body? What's going on…

Ten hours in line, hour and a half being physically punished, pushed, squeezed, all the jumping, dancing, singing (or at least attempting to) and I left the London arena not feeling a sign of exhaustion. Quite the contrary, I wanted more.
My stomach was dizzy. My head was revolted. An inner revolution started within myself. My blood was pumping and my heart trying to pop out of my chest. I was In Love.