When Bogus Slogan tours internationally, they will try to use local bands to open the show. But once in a while the band will do a ‘package’ tour (like the original rock n/ rollers) and take a full slate of non-native bands into the rock concert halls of the world. Good experience for both fans and bands.

So one winter day, Bogus Slogan and friends, headed for the warm Southern Hemisphere. The mid tour break was scheduled after the Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro play dates. Bands and crew were going to fly into Martinque for a week’s vacation.

Though the support card had bands with Spanish names (el Ondas Cortas
/ The Support Drops) (Los Apoyo Gotas / The Short Waves) (Las Chicas Azul / The Blue Chicks), all of them were United States bands. El Cortas were from a truly lost block in La Salle, Illinois. With a latino population of 148, this small town band had recorded and toured their way into a regional supergroup. Los Gotas were a SoCal band who were voted by the BS fan club to be a part of the tour. The Blue Chicks had great musical credentials. They were the top selling independent recording artists in Texas. They all did dress in blue, but it was not played as a gimmick.

At the Extravaganza Ballroom in Sao Paulo, locals hi-jacked Las Chicas Azul’s last number by making a conga line which ultimately consumed the group themselves. Out the loading dock they went. Past the equipment trucks. Show went on.

Consistent rumors gave some relief that they were alive somewhere in the Amazon River System. Were they slave or masters. No authority, federal or local, could find them. The Rio concert came and went. The vacation came and went.

They finally returned to the tour at Montevideo with big grins on their faces and no explanations. No one could get them to talk. Everyone else burned with envy, thinking, they went to the wrong place for vacation.