Bro deal

Thanks to Tijuana’s Jorge Fonseca, it’s no big deal for a band to fly in from Europe and play two different countries in one weekend.

Fonseca’s day job is with the Mexican electric company (CFE). But he loves music and he’s been a part-time show promoter in Baja for ten years.

Fonseca was at the Casbah in 2013 when he first saw Capsula, a garage/glam trio from Bilbao, Spain, that has toured North and South America and Europe and draws comparisons to the Cramps and the Who. A blown-away Fonseca asked them if they would consider playing for him in TJ the next time they came to town. Fonseca got band phone numbers.

Last year when Capsula was in town opening for X, Fonseca talked them into playing the 800-seat Black Box in TJ as an add-on date to their tour.

Invoking that same casual, bro-deal relationship, Fonseca is bringing Capsula back again to Tijuana’s Mod Bar and Venue this Saturday, February 21, following their Friday-night Brick by Brick show.

The TJ date does not show up on Capsula’s official itinerary. That’s because the show was not booked through the band’s U.S. agent.

“A deal with a band is more accessible money-wise without the agent,” Fonseca tells the Reader. In other words, its cheaper when it’s just the promoter and the band cutting the deal. Bands usually sign exclusivity arrangements with agents that say all U.S. shows must go through that agent. A Baja show falls through the cracks.

Capsula guitarist/singer Martin Guevara had just arrived in New York on February 9 when he told the Reader he loves playing the back-to-back San Diego/Tijuana dates, despite some trouble last time.

“When we came back across to the U.S., they made us [go into secondary inspection]. They said, ‘What are you doing with all this makeup?’ We told them it is very clear we are in a rock band.”

I asked Guevara how they were able to get Tony Visconti (Bowie, T-Rex) to produce their 2013 Solar Secrets album.

“It was a dream come true. Someone just said they knew him and they could get him to help us. I said, ‘Sure, and while you’re at it, get Jimi Hendrix to play lead for us.’ But our manager contacted him and it was easy. We sent him five really raw demos [and he] reserved two weeks at this studio in Lexington, Kentucky, called Saint Claire.... That year he made two records. One was with us and the other was with Bowie.”