Cancún

This is my second time in the Yucatan peninsula. I am somehow already familiar with the hot and humid climate. I stay in the downtown area of Cancun. In this area, I haven’t seen many foreigners. On my first night, after fasting during the entire travel, I decided to have a hot Mexican soup (clado). I noticed a place where a lot of locals were having them. This was a good sign. The prices were affordable, and everything looked homemade. After I finished my first bowl, I was so hungry that I ordered a second one.

At the table next to me a young man was talking to the owner lady of the restaurant. He was talking about a show he was going to play. He saw my guitar and asked me if I was a musician. I said, yes. He then wanted to try out my guitar. I happily hand it to him. I also told him that my guitar wasn’t tuned traditionally. He tried to play it for a few seconds, but once my tuning confused him enough, he handed the guitar back to me and asked me to play a song. Without much sleep, 22 hours of traveling behind me, I still managed to perform Kayıp Bir Aşk for him and the restaurant’s owner. He then asked me if he could have his soup at my table. I said yes, of course, that he was very welcome to join me.

I introduced myself, and he told me that his name was Julio. As we were eating our “pancita” which is a soup made cow stomach, he asked me what I was doing in Mexico. I told him that I was traveling across the country looking for open mic opportunities for Black Sea Storm. He told me that after our meal he could take me to a rock club and introduce me to the person who is in charge of booking shows. I thought it was incredibly kind of him to do that for me. After the meal, we went to the club. A band was setting up their gear. He briefly explained my situation to the person in charge of the booking. There were some opportunities to perform live for artists not doing covers. Every other Friday they would give the stage for such acts. Julio told the booking person that I had my music on Spotify Apple Music etc.. I then explained to the gatekeeper that the music online was recorded with a rock orchestration whereas during the live act I was performing on an acoustic guitar. I gave him a Black Sea Storm sticker, so he does not forget the name, and also he could check out my music online. In return, he gave me a WhatsApp number to send him a video recording of me performing some of my songs on the acoustic guitar. I also learned that the club did not provide a mic or a mic stand nor cables. Julio was extremely nice. He told me that if I happen to get a date at the club, he will let me borrow his mic and his mic stand for the show.

This first experience of getting my feet wet with the booking shows in Mexico was helpful in the sense of me having an idea of how things work over here. I am more in the search for open mic situations where I could perform with other open mic artists on a night dedicated for such an event. In the case of this first club, I was introduced to through Julio, everything sounded a bit more complicated than what I was expecting it to be. They only had one night out of 14 dedicated to original music, and I had to bring my own gear except for the power amplification. After all the shows that I played in the past, this is the first time I witness a situation where the artist has to bring his own mic stand. If that’s the standard in Mexico, I may have to invest in a stage mic and a mic stand. Money for such investment isn’t the main issue at the moment, but it is more the extra weight to carry around that could be inconvenient. My check-in back-packs wight 20 kg / 44 lbs and my hand luggage must be weighing 8kg/ 18 lbs. You add the guitar bag to this, I must be carrying around about 30 kg /66 pounds. Since I try to avoid cab rides as much as I can, I end up walking quite a lot with all this gear on my back. If on top of that I start carrying around a mic stand a mic and cables, I am just going to have to take more weight around, and for low-cost flights that can turn itself into an expensive problem.

The next day I went to a park to record myself performing my songs live with my phone. They came OK. I haven’t sent anything to the club yet. I decided to not stay in Cancun and pursue my trip further. I may share the recordings at one point with the booking person since I am going to be in the Yucatan peninsula for a little while. If the club allows me to perform, I may come back here, but I aim to find more comfortable situations for booking. That’s the whole appeal to an open mic to me. You go and play, there is not the entire involvement of booking a real show.

Tonight was my last night in Cancun. I went to see Julio perform at his show. It was actually quite charming. He was singing romantic ballads in Spanish. I had my guitar with me since I had played in the park before heading over to the show. I was secretly hoping that there may be an opportunity for me to play a couple songs on stage. The prospect did not present itself, but I did enjoy Julio’s show. Tomorrow I am taking the ferry to the Isla Mujeres. I get really excited when I go to places I’ve never visited before.