Bs. As. Rock N Roll, Part 2: Viejas Locas, The Music and the Anecdotes….

Before their singer went completely crazy, destroyed his voice through excessive drug use, and disbanded Viejas Locas to create the terribly bad „Intoxicados“ and harass the world with bad music and tragicomic anecdotes, Viejas Locas was a band that marked the 90s rock scene in Argentina.

Lyrically Viejas Locas were somewhat less than innovative. With few and precious exceptions („Homero“ or „Ninos“), their songs dealt with the very much unexplored subjects of well…sex, drugs, and rock n roll. Musically, slightly modernized Rolling Stones rock, but with a touch of Argentine flair and above all a great atmosphere at their shows.

Summarized…they offered little, but we loved it.

Currently Viejas Locas, and especially singer „Pity,“ have been very much in the news again. On the one hand because of their reunion and the police repression at their concert in Velez, and on the other hand because of „Pity“´s latest scandal. It is well known that Pity takes a lot of drugs. *A lot.* Not only that, he takes a wide variety of them and especially rare for someone who has the economic standing that he has…he is apparently addicted to „paco.“ Paco is the extremely cheap cocaine like drug which is destroying low income Argentine youth in a manner similar to crack in the US of the 1980s.

A few weeks ago, after clearly going a touch too far, „Pity“ apparently downed much more than a healthy dose of Viagra. As a result, he suffered a continued erection (over 24 hours) which forced him to go to the hospital. The extended erection caused necrosis in some of his penis muscles, and doctors had to perform a drainage in order to avoid having to amputate his penis. The consequence: It was saved, but he will never again be able to have an erection. Subsequently, he was put in a mental hospital.

Sadly, it seems Viejas Locas will not be playing again any time soon.

PS Funny, found a German language wikipedia entry about the band.

Todo Sigue Igual One of their later, and more mediocre songs, but the video is a faithful show of the atmosphere at their concerts.

Adrenalina

You anglo-saxons had „Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,“ we have „La Simpatica Demonia“ (The Friendly Devil)

Intoxicado This one, again, is about drugs. Notice the flares in the audience, and I remind you this was a *closed* venue. More on this in the Callejeros post in a few days.