Sunday, May 18, 2008

Rockero for one more night

Let me preface this with a little edu-macation: Rock en español devotees are known as “rockeros”. The music sounds a lot like 80’s music/new wave/synthpop/punk - it is common practice for DJ’s to interweave The Cure, Berlin, Depeche Mode, A-ha, Blondie, Flock of Seagulls… on and on… you get the picture.




So last week, as I strolled home from Target, I noticed the restaurant at the Hyatt had changed - it used to be called Belluno and it sucked hard! The new name was very familiar, JC Fandango. The rest of the way home, I replayed memories from the era between the ages of 18-22, when Liz, Sandy, Teresa and I, and occasionally a few others, scoured the southland for rock en español clubs. We mostly frequented Carlos O’Brien’s in downtown San Bernardino. I know what your thinking… and ghetto it was indeed, but you have to understand, we lived in a very rural town called Hemet, San Bernardino was the closest city. Additionally, there weren’t a whole lot of rock en español clubs; the few in existence were sprinkled about Southern California. Carlos O’Brien’s was certainly one of the most popular, followed by Tia Juana’s in Irvine and… ah yes, JC Fandango in Anaheim (I remembered as I unlocked my door, getting home from Target)

Saturday afternoon, I convinced Liz to drive down from Hemet; I lured her by letting her in on my recent discovery, “JC Fandango moved a block from my apartment”, I exclaimed! She reluctantly came. We got ready at my place, just like old times. But this time it was hard trying to figure out what to wear because I couldn’t remember how to dress to a rock en español club and none of my old clothes fit anymore. It’s been at least 3 years since I’ve set foot in one of those clubs - pretty much, since I left Hemet for Orange County without looking back. After visiting the JC Fandango website, I learned you can get around the $20 cover charge if you have dinner in the restaurant first. As it turned out, the food was surprisingly good. Liz and I crossed over to the club right after dinner; we were among the first people there. The DJ was spectacular! He played several sub genres of Latin music, as well as some hip hop and pop, but when our music came on, our eyes lit-up and we booked it for the dance floor. It was the beginning of a mojito laden, nostalgia driven, Shakira-Juanes-Maná-Berlin-Soda Stereo-Heroes del Silencio-La Ley-Hombres G- Enanitos Verdes-Jaguares-‘A-ha’-The Cure-Duncan Dhu-Vilma Palma-Moenia escapade.




I forgot how much I liked this music and how it brought me closer to my best friends. I’ll be downloading all of my favorite songs this week and Liz and I are planning on bringing the old crew. Hopefully we come to the point where we don’t have to refer to it as the old crew… drop the old and just call it the crew. I dug up these pictures… [cough… cruel intentions cough]


3 comments:

  1. AHHHH!!! It's finally here!!!

    I love it!


    #1 Fan, Yvonceylicious

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yayyy......Himbo !!!

    Lux err ious has arrived !

    ReplyDelete
  3. Here's a morbid story for you...you know me =]

    Man kills toddler over family
    “He chopped off the boy's head in front of the mother to get back at her”A man beheaded his 15-month-old nephew in front of the child's mother at a supermarket in Saudi Arabia, apparently after a family dispute.

    Now thats morbid !

    ReplyDelete

Add to Technorati Favorites