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Vice Blog

NEW YORK - BACK FROM SOUTH AMERICA, WHERE IT'S OK TO EMO OUT


Hi, I'm Tom Arsenault aka Able Hearts. I'm going to show you some photos from my solo tour in South America last month, which started with a sound check in the blazing Buenos Aires summer sun. This was the entrance to the venue, which was this huge rooftop patio between two furniture factories. The last time I played in Buenos Aires was a dinner party for this architect's family and friends. I spent the night flirting with his niece, who I thought was his friend and older than 16. Oops. This little door put me at ease, but none of the girls that came to this show liked my songs. My mom did though, when I decided to play in an infinity pool in Uruguay and she was the only one in attendance, but that sounds weird, doesn't it? Maybe I shouldn't talk about that….

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This is on the other side of that door. The former owner of this house is the owner of one of the factories. Inside there is this small room where one of the walls is glass and you can look down on the factory floor. It feels kind of perverted, and I think the guys that live there eat breakfast in bathrobes and watch the people working on furniture instead of TV. I wanted to play in that room but the kids who came to the show were not competent wood workers.

My first show in Sao Paulo, the city I love so much, and spent many years in, was at this spot called Casases. This is not such a clear shot, but neither was the show. A really big filling fell out of my tooth while I was singing and I swallowed it, and I got strangely emotional and discouraged and sort of screamed the rest of my set and cut it short. The guys who played that show with me were amazing, including a Scotsman playing steel string and singing. This shot has M. Takara in it, though he is impossible to see, Luciano Valerio from Desmonta records, and this other dude, I forgot his name but he has a record called Pastiche Nago.

I play this amazing synth modular delay called a Cocolase that Peter B made. Here it is, plugged into the city, getting charged up before the show. Beside this spot there is a pet store, really good cheap and fresh food, and a brothel.

All the flying in planes and the playing in pools and the pets in the pet store broke it though. I thought my gear would for sure get crushed or stolen in some airport, but this was the worst it got. And I wasn't sure if I could fly with a guitar or if they would make me check it. But you can just carry them on, in a hard or soft case, they don't say a thing. And they usually put it in a closet for you. But don't call and ask, they'll say no.

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Sao Paulo would be taken over by massive lustful flowers if everyone just slept in one morning. But surprisingly, they don't.

At the show in Rio de Janeiro I gave everyone a little green snake whistle, then we all walked out of the place in single file. I told a story about my grandmother happily drowning in a river and the snakes came to remind her of my mother, then three months old. The river part of the story isn't true but I thought it sounded good.

This was the bartender in Rio, at this place called Audio Rebel.

Here are three of the seven people in Sertao Agrario, the band I played with. All of them are in high school. The picture of their singer did not come out, which sucks because she's the sweetest and cutest but I don't mean that in a creepy way. Rio has really good beached-out kids.

Everyone at this show—the band, the crowd—was in high school and on their summer break. Remember that? When you'd see something on the wall you'd really think about it. This says "Who controls your desires?"

TOM ARSENAULT