Escovedo Excited About European Tour With the Zeros

<figure id="attachment_4012" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-4012" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a class="highslide" onclick="return vz.expand(this)" href="http://laprensa-sandiego.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Zeros-9-10-09-0… loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-4012" title="Zeros 9-10-09 015" src="http://laprensa-sandiego.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Zeros-9-10-09-0…; alt="" width="300" height="253"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-4012" class="wp-caption-text">Zeros lead singer Javier Escovedo is off to Europe Photo J.P. Wyllie.</figcaption></figure>
Back in April, Javier Escovedo had no idea how a reunion of his 1970s punk band, the Zeros might be received. It took months of telephone calls and relentless prodding from punk rock aficionado “Bobby Adopted” to convince Escovedo to reunite original members Baba Chenelle, Hector Penalosa and Robert Lopez on stage at his club. The plan was just to do a couple of gigs at the Gilman Street Club in Berkeley, California, a club with a lengthy association with punk rock. None of the Zeros had any expectation that the two Berkeley performances might lead to anything else.
As it turned out, the June Gilman Street gigs were a huge success. Word of the band’s reuniting spread like wildfire within the punk community. Offers came pouring in from here there and everywhere and the band embarked on series of dates in California, followed by additional dates in Portland, Seattle, Arizona and New Jersey.
In September, Escovedo joined his bandmates on stage at the San Diego Music Association Awards where they were presented with a lifetime achievement award for their pioneering punk rock work with the Zeros. Their return was heralded with features in the the San Diego Union Tribune and elsewhere.
“Back in the 70s it was kind of dangerous to be a punk rocker. Fights would often break out (while they were sharing the stage with luminaries such as Patti Smith, the Clash, the Germs and many others),” Escovedo recalled. “We were able to put some records out and a lot of bands didn’t. We were very lucky in that respect. That is why we are now included in books (about 70s punk rock).
Now the Zeros are about to set off on an 18-date four-country European tour that will take them to Spain, Germany, France and Italy. It is an amazing turn of events for a band that was never commercially successful and hadn’t performed prior to June in its original form in over 15 years.
“The floodgates are open now. Every city has been calling us or contacting us through MySpace,” said an astonished Escovedo. “They want us to do a New York tour, they want us to play in Austin and Australia. Now that we have started up again everyone wants us to play.”
When the Zeros came together in the late 70s, they were still attending school at Sweetwater or Chula Vista High. Now these 40-somethings have moved on with their careers and their lives. In order to devote a few weeks to their upcoming tour they have had to pull some strings at work and made some arrangements with their families and other commitments.
“Time has a funny way of mythologizing certain events and figures. It just has sort of grown like a mold,” quipped bandmate, Hector Penalosa. “We played in Spain and France in the 70s, so we know the crowds will be great, it will be fun the money is guaranteed and they are even paying us in Euros.”
“You never know what is going to happen,” Escovedo said. “We never expected to tour Spain (back in the 70s), but we did.”
Prior to their departure, the Zeros performed on New Year’s Eve and Day at the Redwood Club in downtown L.A. and then on Jan. 2 here in San Diego at the Casbah. Where this renewed wave of popularity will end is anybody’s guess.