Damian Lazarus: Devil Night Tour diary entry #3

Weekend Three: Monterrey, Juarez & L.A.

“Oh the joy! What good timing, arriving here in America just as the place wakes up to its recent failings and elects a promising new leader to right its wrongs, put things straight and attempts to regain the nation’s position as the fun loving techno town it once was. The only drawback to this momentous moment of course was the hideous outcome of the Proposition 8 vote, which now means that whilst we have a black President making the most important decisions in the world, my gay friends are now not allowed to marry each other… we do live in bizarre times indeed.

The last time I was in Monterrey in Mexico was one year ago when I played on the eve of Day of the Dead. I was greeted at the club by an altar that was set up in my honour, complete with offerings of hats, fags, devilish playing cards, CDs and all sorts of Lazarus-related paraphernalia. Tonight, I was greeted by a heaving mass of sweat-laden maidens and cool Mexican geezers; all dressed the part and ready for action. Action at Aura, tonight’s 500 capacity venue, includes a lot of screaming, plenty of whooping and a chap who asked me to autograph the shirt he was wearing and then got pissed off because I refused to swap my hat with his.

Just before leaving the club at around 7am I went to hang out with a friend who had flown in from Mexico City and his mates who had been on the dancefloor for the past three or so hours. One of them told me that his girlfriend had earlier taken her first ever pill and by the look on her face as I watched her, it was a good one. I asked her how she was, she looked at me, wide eyed and answered, “perfect” with a huge grin. A great end to a great night.

I had less than four hours to sleep before leaving for the airport. There is only one direct flight between Monterrey and Juarez today and it’s early, but I will always choose an early direct flight over a later one where there are changes or stop-overs involved.

It meant that I arrived in Juarez by 3pm and in true Lazarus style, I opted to go to a football match with some friends instead of doing what I should have done - get more sleep.

Local team Indios are playing Mexico City’s Cruz Azul in one of the last games of the season. The team was only created in 2005 and this year were promoted to the premier league. This is a good thing for this city which in recent times has mainly been associated with many drug war-related killings. It was amazing to feel the atmosphere at the stadium (which will soon make way for a 46,000 capacity new arena). Football is a family and friends outing here, with loud tribal drumming, tacos on the terraces and brilliant songs and arm-waving actions.

When Indios scored the only goal of the match, the scenes inside were something very special, with the hundreds of people throwing their beers in the air and spraying everyone else; note to self, next time at Mexican football match, carry bin liner in pocket!

Tonight at Hardpop, regular home to Crosstown Rebels artists and state of the art venue run by the lovely Ricardo Tejada, I am playing with my good friend Mr C. We have played together a few times recently and we always have a good laugh. Tonight is no exception and the amazing people here tonight especially appreciate the last hour of the night when the two of us play back to back. Last time I was here I went to a friend’s house for a super afterparty, tonight however I am sensible and get back to the hotel quickly so that I can sleep for just two hours before being collected to drive across the border at El Paso to take my early morning flight back to L.A.

My best friends are visiting us this week and a very strong crew of ravers and party heads here are gathering tonight to join myself, Mr C, Jamie Jones and the Droog crew for a new party called Freaky Sunday. The venue is called The Room, is small but well formed and is just perfect for this new Sunday session which starts at 6pm and goes through to 2am. In homage to Sunday, usually associated as a rest day, I slowed down my set tonight to around 120 bpm and got into the party spirit with some lushly paced gems. The crowd were brilliant tonight and to mark the Droog’s achievement here, Mr C and I did one of our rare specials at the end of the night, a back to back mentalist-DJ performance complete with live MC’ing and crowd participation. Seeing is believing with this one, and it only happens at very special occasions, you can never tell when the next one might occur (but there is a possibility of it taking place at the last ever Stink party at the T bar, London on December 8th).

And so it is now Wednesday morning as I write this, and I have an apology to make. I had initially promised a weekly film and had devised a cunning plan to make some silliness to follow the first one (posted on week one). The reality is this, my camera battery is out of juice and my charger is in transit being shipped to me along with the rest of my belongings from London. So without this (and I have tried, unsuccessfully, to buy a new battery) I have been unable to fulfill my promise. And so it is with great pleasure as a little treat, that I present to you a diamond amongst photos taken recently of myself, Mr C and Jamie Jones (main image top)… enjoy it and we will await next week’s news from House hotspots, San Francisco, Detroit and Miami.