Last night’s REM show in Mexico City was outstanding, and despite the fact that Mssrs. Buck and McOi were weathering some food blues, they soldiered on, bolstered by a wonderful audience of some 12,000-14,000 people. I saw something I had never seen an audience do before: during the song “Wanted to Be Wrong” which has a slow but steady beat, the crowd both clapped on the snare (a refreshing change when an audience can find 2 & 4 in a measure) and flicked their lighters on and off to the beat…creating a “thousand strobing fireflies” effect (previously an entree on a chinese menu, or a Magnetic Fields song)…beautiful. The roar that arose at the top of “Everybody Hurts” and “Losing My Rel.” was louder than the level onstage by a fair piece, I had to count in my head and hope I came out on the beat when the noise subsided. It made the corner of my eyes squirt little tears, to feel that big surge of love and joy from so many people. Our guide during our day at Teotihuan, Gorilla, was very visible in a bright red shirt in the 5th row…he brought us some very lovely things, crytals and a kind of champagne cider…he knows there are many routes to the mystic planes, and we love him for that. After the show we were whisked out in a string of CIA-looking SUVs, with a death defying police cruiser leading the way…a couple of merges looked like somebody was going to eat concrete but there was nary a scratch all told. We had a gathering in the Hotel Habita’s hipster oasis, rooftop style, I was speaking broken French and Spanish and being forgiven (rocker immunity). Finally returned from some noisy club or other at about 6 this morning–my gracious thanks to Eduardo and Laura for ferrying me around and preventing from paying for drinks!
I have the latest flight out, 9:30 tonight direct to CDG, so I am the last one at the hotel, thus when I went out in the (late) afternoon I dined at a taqueria solo, strolled thru the neighborhood a bit, doves pecking around, flower petals wilting in the gutter, forcing all that technicolor dusk to get in there, keep that memory…which is a sign I must be going on. I feel like I’ve been in town for a month, but it was a well-lived 4 days.
Cold World glory, be ye prepared.
Love
KS
Mexico City