By Amanda Barnes for The Mendoza SunEveryone loves live music – so it’s always surprising how little of it you can find in Mendoza. There are a couple bars that have the odd live tango act, or some Arabian belly-dancing music, and there are plenty of options for a bit of cumbia, but to find a real ‘band’ … it’s a tough call. Of course I mean ‘band’ in the gringo sense – proper rock music, feet stamping, sweaty dancing, a bit of head banging and the odd swear word… rock and roll man. It’s actually quite hard to come by.
That was until ‘Nick and the Shots’. Every expat’s favourite night out – a few pints of beer listening to Australian Nick Cushen make some awesome renditions of The Rolling Stones, Jimmy Hendrix, ACDC, the list gets better. Nick and his band (Aleçandro Buta and Andres Valles) have been playing rock, blues and R&B (in the traditional sense) to Mendoza for over a year now, but sadly July was the last chance to see them, for a while at least. Nick’s moving to Brazil to spend some time with family, but after meeting him for a chat about being a rock star in Mendoza, it turns out that it wasn’t all guitar smashing and swimming pools, and that in fact Mendocineans can be a pretty tough crowd.
“There is definitely a change of energy here,” said Nick over a last glass of Malbec. “Everyone is sitting down quietly and looking at you during the gig, you just hope for applause because you don’t know what they are thinking…”
Perhaps it’s the famous conservative attitude of mountain folk, but live music is actually facing a bit of a crisis in Argentina in general. “Buenos Aires is easier to get gigs,” admits Nick, who started in a rock band in the capital city over 10 years ago. “But even there a lot of bars have been closed. There is a big licensing problem here – bars are all being closed for having too many people at them. And the bars that are open don’t want bands or need them, in fact sometimes people expect the band to pay to play.”
Nick explains how the restrictive licensing (which is choking live music) is a result of the Cromanon disaster in December 2004. In a Buenos Aires club, 194 people died and over 700 were injured as a result of smoke inhalation and crushing as the 3000 attendees tried to leave when a flare went astray setting fire to the roof. What made the horrific accident worse was that the club was three times over capacity and the exit doors were all locked to stop people getting in.
“Obviously with such a disaster that killed so many people, there a lot of families looking for justice,” said Nick. As well as being a heart breaking tragedy on a personal level, its affects have also been a tragedy for the live music industry. “The problem is that it makes it really difficult for places to have live music now with all the legislation.”
Legislation and tight landlords aside, Nick and the Shots, like many bands, started out from a passion for music, and fortunately passion can’t be easily quashed by bureaucracy. Nick actually fell into a band by accident. “I always had the rock star dream… playing in my room, dancing around in my underwear etc, I played the guitar since I was 14 but I was never good enough to play in a band. When I was travelling and living BA, I was working at a bar and a band came in for their sound check. The singer didn’t show up, so I offered to sing for them. It worked really well, and we ended up forming a side band – The Barflies.”
Playing for a couple years in BA with The Barflies stirred up that rock star dream again, and after a few more years of travelling, Nick moved to Mendoza and decided to start a band – but he had to start from square one again. “I went to a recording studio because I figured it was the best way to meet some musicians – and it was. I met a few guys, spent a few months practising and trying different musicians and eventually formed a band with Andres and Aleçandro.
Their first gig was at The Hyatt playing for The Vines on a special expats Texan night. Turning their hand to country and blues classics, Nick and The Shots made a real impression and gigs started filing in from there.
“It was a hobby, actually a dream come true really!” said Nick at the popularity that they found. “Being a gringo in a rock band has a certain niche, but in Mendoza success is always limited. It’s a great place to start and test a band and there are opportunities but it can’t go that far here.”
So the band is broadening its horizons. This month they released their first EP ‘Get Back’ with three original songs and one cover, and despite Nick’s rather far flung new home in Bahia, the band are planning to do a few dates in Argentina and Chile in November.
There is certainly talent and passion here in Mendoza, and time will tell whether that can overcome smothering red tape. Until then, at least we have the ‘Get Back’ of Nick and The Shots soon!
Amanda Barnes is a freelance writer currently living in Mendoza.
For more information, visit www.amandabarnes.co.uk or click here to see her profile.
