South American 2005 Tour

Published: 04-04-2006
Author: Randall Jones

Greetings from the road!

I’m writing this on an Amtrak train on my way from Montreal to NYC. I love taking this line. It’s a beautiful ride along Lake Champlain and through the Appalachian Mountains. I will get to this trip in another month though. First I need to tell you about what I got up to over

the holidays and New Years Eve.

I had decided to do a massive tour through South America. I was going to be on the road for almost a month which is a longtime to be in hotel rooms, especially during the holidays. It’s so beautiful down there during this time of year though, the beaches are lined with beautiful women, the clubs are packed and the summer weather is amazing!

I flew from Houston to Buenos Aires on one of the first three flights Continental Airlines has ever made there. They just started this line recently. It’s great for guys like me that want to fly there but don’t want to go via Miami on American Airlines. I arrived in BsAs and immediately went to a small boutique hotel where I was staying. The feeling I get in this city is like no other. It’s one of the few cities in the world that gives you a certain rush when you are there. It’s inexplicable and needs to be felt to be understood. I caught up with a few friends while I was there, went out a bit and then took a flight to Cordoba to play on the night before Christmas, Dec. 24, 2005. Cordoba is a beautiful city of about 3million in the heartland of Argentina. It’s named so because when the first settlers from Spain there saw the land, they were reminded of Cordoba, Spain. The accent is on the first “o”. So it’s like Coooordoba. Anyway, I was playing for this club Lokitas which is considered by many to be one of the finest in the world. It’s very small, maybe 500-700people, but the vibe is incomparable to any other. Actually, my good friend, Satoshi, told me that the last time he played there, he almost missed his flight because he played until 3 in the afternoon!! My other boy, Luke Fair, named a track after the club!! You get the picture of the type of respect this club earns.

Well, I’m headlining a festival there that is being thrown by Lokitas. HAHA..by the way…Lokitas means “crazy girls” in Spanish!! Anyway, I was wondering why they were having a festival on the night before Xmas because in the US no one would go out that night. Apparently that’s not the case in Argentina. There were probably about 7000 people there upon the night!

Facu Carri is opening for me and I consider him to be one of the best djs in the world. If you’ve never heard of him then look him up. Peep out this website…www.surfacebookings.com. He played amazingly as usual and got the crowd in the main tent bubbling! I headlined the main tent and played 4-8am. It was out of control with people going completely buck wild!! Tracks that rocked were “Bang&Coke”, LES remix of “It Comes from Inside” as well as many others. It was one of those gigs that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

I stayed a few extra days in Cordoba and enjoyed the hospitality. I trained at a local gym with Facu and we ran around with some girls and drank some champagne. Of course we traded hot new tracks and listened to music the whole time as well!! A week to remember in Cordoba!!

After Cordoba, I’m off to Mar Del Plata to play at Sobremonte. This is a world famous club that is actually a club complex. The whole place holds about 8000 people. On the main floor is dance music and then they also have a room for mainstream, a Mexican tequila bar, outside area with a pool, internet café, sushi restaurant and a bunch of other areas. My buddy Hernan Cattaneo has been playing there for years and always tells me how sweet it is so I’m excited and honored to headline New Years Eve there.

I spend a few days on the beach in Mar Del Plata just enjoying the sun and the Argentine people. When New Years rolls around I’m ready to go!! I actually sleep through the actual New Years celebrations at midnight because I have to play 3-7am at the club!! I’m woken up by my friend Maca who is taking care of me while I’m there. She picks me up with two other cuties in the car and we are set to rock!! 2006 is going to be hot. At least that’s what I’m screaming to everybody at Sobremonte because I come out dropping the heaters.

Adrian Bernardi opens for me and then I’m out the gate… low slung, with some blazing, chunky house numbers. It’s the perfect place to start my 2006. It is such an honor to play for a crowd like this. Argentinian culture is unexplainably wonderful. One interesting note about this gig is that they have a Pioneer DJM1000 mixer in the booth. It’s the first time I’ve played on this brand new mixer and it’s nice. Really long, smooth faders and a nice frequency isolator for the main mix. My first reaction to this new mixer is that even though I’m an Allen&Heath man, Pioneer’s new workhorse is buttery.

After spending a few days on the ocean in Argentina I’m off to the other side of the continent to check out a new ocean. Vina Del Mar is a luxury tourist town in Chile that sits on the Pacific next to Valparaiso. My flight arrives in Santiago and the promoters pick me up and we’re off. I’m tripping because it’s January 4th and I just gotta know if the Longhorns beat USC in the National Championships! I call my folks and they tell me that the game is starting in one hour!! I’m stoked as hell that I haven’t missed the game and tell the promoters to find a TV so we can watch it. HOOKEM HORNS!! After a few attempts we find a restaurant right on the beach that has ESPN2 with the Rose Bowl on!! I start hooting and hollering and flashing hookems’ and by the end of the hour I’ve got everybody in the whole joint rooting for Texas! Well, if you watched that game you know that it was one of the best football games ever and VinceYoung proved to the world what he’s made of. I’m feeling high from the Longhorn win for the next few days as I rock the spot at this small club in Vina and walk the beach, enjoying the massive amount of Argentine and Chilean honey and culture. The club owns this classic 1953 Oldsmobile convertible with a horn like the one on the General Lee in the Dukes of Hazzard. It’s hilarious. I will never forget rolling around in that joint on the beach with my friends!! Massive respect to Demian, Coreya and Jacko, and especially to my little dew drop, Rocio…massively cool peeps.

So up next is Peru, and I’m playing for one of my favorite promoters in the world, Arturo Ruiz. He owns a couple of clubs in the Lima area and does amazing one off parties with thousands of people as well. I’m playing in Asia (pronounced Ah-see-ah) which is a beach town about 100km south of Lima. Its always amazing there and packed with tourists and surfers as well as locals on the weekends, ready for some summer action. Arturo’s club, La Huaka, is the main attraction in Asia and its always packed and humming. I’m also excited to stay for a few days in Arturo’s beach house and do some surfing. I’m ready to surf some golden Peruvian waves! So I hook up with my buddy Fernando who is a restaurant and club owner in Lima and he promises to take me to a few secret spots! The first spot we hit has some of the best waves I’ve ever surfed in my life!! I’m talking about superclean headhigh barrels that are gaping!! It’s a superfast beachbreak that is breaking maybe 10metres from shore and I see my fair share of wipeouts but also catch some sick barrels. The perfect type of wave to learn how to surf well on. I end up going back to this spot for three days in a row and catching some of the best surf of my life!! I’d love to give y’all some coordinates…but its secret!!

HAHA!! Anyway, I’m glad to finally get back to Houston. For the next month I’m moving my recording studio. I move to a new, bigger room with better sound dynamics. Before I put my stuff in I arrange to have some wood laminate floors put down and the walls painted. The final touch is an acoustical foam treatment to insulate things proper. By the time I’m finished with this stuff I’m so hyped to make some music that it hurts! Unfortunately I have to leave for another two weeks to play some gigs in Canada and the northeast USA. But that’s another story….see y’all then!!

Massive Respekt in the music!!
RandallJ