“Mexico was insane,” Stevens says. “It was like a big scale festival. We had a big crowd and that was really nice, but the thing that kind of blew our mind was the signing that we did at a record store the next day. The line was going down the street and around the block. It took like two-and-a-half hours to meet everyone. The fans there are so passionate and affectionate. They bring you letters and fan art. The level of enthusiasm from the fans was crazy.
“I haven’t seen that anywhere else,” she muses. “We meet fans all over the world but we’ve never had anything on that scale. Their energy… maybe it’s the South American way. They’re just so vibrant and enthusiastic. They want to kiss and hug you.”
And sing to you. The band’s Mexican fans sung along to the songs from Gracetown with surprising vigour. “It was pretty surreal,” Stevens says. “I don’t know how, because I don’t think the album had been released yet, but they knew the words.”
The band’s headline shows were also a success, so much so that they’ll be returning Stateside for a bigger jaunt in June. “We sold out both New York shows and the Troubadour in LA and they were all really fun shows,” Stevens says. “We’d been at South By Southwest just before, so we were a little bit run down but they were really great, fun shows.”
Well versed in the art of touring, Stevens realises that ‘run down’ may as well mean ‘keep running’. “We’d all gotten a bit of flu at the time we went to New York, but we all had ours heads in the game, I think. We were well-rehearsed from South By Southwest, so the New York shows ended up being the best ones on the tour.”
Speaking of run down, bass player Nick Gardner was unable to join the band for this tour after injuring his foot in a shooting accident (rather ironically, his substitute, Jennifer Aslett, plays for fellow Fremantle outfit, Gunns). Despite the damaged limb, Gardner found a way to be useful.
“He’s been organising some stuff for our next tour,” Stevens says. “Logistical things on the production front.”
For those that didn’t hear the story back in March, just prior to the release of Gracetown, Gardner was kicking back at a friend’s farm in the West Australian town of Collie. During a bumpy drive around the property, a gun on the floor of the vehicle was activated, blasting a hole through the bass player’s foot. While she’s certainly sympathetic, Stevens isn’t too impressed about the circumstances that led to Gardner’s injury. “He should never have had a gun in the first place,” she says.
Thankfully, Gardner recovered in time for the band’s well-received performances on this month’s Groovin The Moo tour. San Cisco are now back at full strength and powering through the Australian leg of their Gracetown headline tour. Immediately after the record came out, the band updated their setlists with several of the new songs. Given the record’s predominant positivity, the songs have nestled in seamlessly.
“They’re sounding good,” says Stevens. “I think Too Much Time Together is a fun one for the crowds, seeing as it’s the single as well. Snow goes down really well, it’s a bit more dancey, four-to-the-floor. It kicks in and has a really big sound. It works well at gigs. Bitter Winter goes well, people sing a long to that.”
BY BOB GORDON
