July 9, 1998*Sept. 24, 1998*Sept. 26, 1998* Nov. 28, 1998*Dec. 5, 1998* Feb 12, 1999
JULY 9, 1998 BLINDSPOT, THE READYMEN, 78 RPMs
PALOOKAVILLE, SANTA CRUZ, CA
Okay, I've never written a review before, I don't think I wanna call this a review, it's more like a story of what happened (to me specifically) at this show. Okay, so here we go! I arrived downtown at about 8:30pm, after my friend Whitney had insisted that we go through the Taco Bell drive through, and we ended up waiting for 10 minutes in line behind some idiots who passed the food back like 12 times. So finally I park my car, and Whitney realizes that her ticket was in her car which was parked at my house. So I lend Whit my car to drive and get her ticket. As we do the car switch, I recognized Jeff in the parking lot.
In the mean time, Jason and I walk around the corner from Graphix to Palookaville, and who do I see? Achilles sporting his purple hair. So After a brief "Hello, how's it going?" from him, Jason and I sit down on the side walk. When Whit returns with my car, we enter Palookaville.
I had decided it was a goal of mine to get the HUGE Blindspot poster that was in the door of Palookaville.(okay, okay, so call me an obsessed fan, maybe I am!!!) So by the end of the night, at whatever costs I would be taking it home with me. I believe the music started around 9:30pm, when 78 rpm's played. In my opinion they were quite good.
After they played, I went and found Achilles again, and asked him if he could do a favor for me. He said it depended on what it was. I asked him if he could get that GIANT poster for me, he said he could try, but security wouldn't even let the band itself have it. I told him I thought that was dumb. Well, at this time, I was looking for Jeff again, because in an e-mail, he had told me not to be shy, and that I should introduce myself(like I did to Achilles at the June 11th show)...but after the parking lot, I hadn't seen him all night. So I asked Achilles if he's seen Jeff around, and what do you know, as soon as I said it, he walked right over. I introduced myself, and he shook my hand. Prior to the show (like a week ago I think) I had asked Jeff if the band would Play "Burly Man", after all, it's one of my very favorite songs of theirs. He had told me something along the lines of that the band doesn't like to play it much anymore, but he'd see what he could do in convincing them to play it for me. So I asked Jeff if they were gonna play Burly, and he said yes. Wow, that alone was just gonna make my day/night whatever! Jeff then said he would love to sit and chat, but he had to go help set up or something. So I said good bye.
Next up were the Readymen, who I must admit were a LOT better than the last time I heard them play (with Undercover S.K.A. and Blindspot back in March of '98). They put on a very decent show this time-last time I was quite disappointed with them. As soon as they finished, my friend Jason and I went and stood where we knew the horn section would be playing during Blindspot...It's become a tradition of mine, each time I've seen Blindspot I've been standing in front of the horn section. So we reserved our spots.
Before we knew it, Blindspot was coming on-stage, and boy did they
look smart all
dressed up with black pants, white dress shirts, funny plaid/checkered
coats and
black shoes! I love it when bands dress up. Blindspot put on the BEST
show I've ever
seen them play, they played almost all of my favorite songs-the only one
they were
missing was "Fenced". Here's what the set list reads...what is in ( )
did not actually
appear on the set list!!!
For the encore, some girl next to me had asked for the numbers song (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12), so they played that (after David took his shoes off, and some other band members(if I'm not mistaken I think it was Kim) suggested we take our shoes and pants off!)
During Maude David came down off the stage, and said we should start a Congo line. So he was leading it, and I hopped in right behind him, and had my hands on his shoulders. Before the encore, after they had left the stage, I grabbed the set list (I also have the June 11th one) and the empty water bottle that Achilles had left right in front of me on the stage...(see my friend Jason and I have this little water bottle collection, it started at the SPECIALS concert in March of this year. I was in front of Neville and he gave me a water bottle (full), and I took it back and shared it with Ethan and Jason (who's idolizes Neville) and I gave it to Jason to cherish forever. Well the guys in Blindspot are my gods, so I kept this empty bottle to cherish forever.) When they came back on-stage, Achilles had a new water bottle, and after drinking some he put it down in front of me, and I took it, then he told me to share it, so I drank some, Jason drank some, then we passed it on...I already had my one bottle to cherish.
After the encore, I tried to bribe a security guard for the HUGE
poster on the door,
but he said no. So Jason and I went out to my car briefly, and my god!!
My friends Whitney,
KT and Steph had gone out and found at least 20 Blindspot posters around
town and had
plastered my car with them! Including one sticking outta my little gas
tank flippy lid
thingy. So we all went back and found another security guard, and bribed
him for the
poster, and he ended up selling it to us. So I was totally stoked!!! I
tell you now,
that poster has a happy home right above my bed! So I found Jeff again
and told him
we got the poster and I told him that they did a great job tonight and
thanked him
for playing Burly Man. My friends introduced themselves to him at this
time as well.
He said he had to go and finish packing up their stuff, so I talked to
Achilles briefly again.
I told him that I got the poster and asked when they were coming back to
Santa Cruz, and
(drum roll please!!!!!)........He said probably in September they'd play
here with Slow Gherkin.
I then told Achilles to have fun on their tour, and he said he'd try.
Okay, the end!!!!
Well, not quite I proceeded to drive home with my windows down, blasting
Blindspot
music, and having the poster sticking outta my gas tank flippy lid
thingy. As we
drove I shouted at random people "Blindspot Kicks Ass!!!". I was just
slightly hyped after
the show! Yes, so that's my little story. Hope you enjoyed. And whatever
you do, at
whatever costs, if there's a Blindspot show in your area, you better get
off you lazy
little butt and go see them, you will not be disappointed!!!
Well boys and girls it's story time again, so here we go! I arrived
downtown around 8:15pm, parked my car,
and walked towards the front of Palookaville. There was NO ONE there
the doors to Palookaville were locked,
but people were inside. So I rest my head against a parking meter- after
all I was very tired. I had one heck of
a day. From 11am-3pm I was at Slow Gherkin's video shoot for "How Now
Lowbrow" (danandnand Hey!) And I did my
share of dancing and screaming there. Now as if this weren't enough, at
4pm I had to run a cross country race.
I just kept reciting "I don't think enough, I think too much!" over and
over during the race, and I actually improved
my time by 4 minutes! Ok, enough of that though….So back to my story…So
I'm leaning on the meter when Achilles
walks out (no purple hair this time, just the usual bleached) and we say
our hellos, and he re-confirms with me
that he put me and my friend KT on the guest list. He makes some comment
about the huge poster with David on it,
which I don't exactly recall what it was. Then David and some other
band members came out in a hurry, and Achilles
told me they were heading off towards Zack Kent (of Slow Gherkin)'s
house. David comes over and asks if I'm Hannah,
and I say yeah. I put out my hand to shake hands, so he shakes it, then
he says, "Aw come here, you deserve a hug"
so I get my hug. =0) He thanks me for the webpage, and for the
letter…then they leave. I sat there in a daze just
smiling for about 10 minutes. It was a good start to the night. So
eventually my friend KT shows up, and we go get our
tickets by checking in and telling them we're on the guest list.
Wow…what an honor. It was really neat.
So now we're inside P-ville, it's about 8:50pm, and we see our
friends Tenderloin and Vince. So we snag
a table and chairs- we were all exausted. Then we head to the
merchandise table, where Jeff says hello, and
I bug him about me never getting any of the mailings. I've ONLY signed
their freakin' guestbook at every
show I've seen them play…but I did it again, right in front of his face,
so maybe I'll get the next mailer.
We then go sit down again.
I believe at 9:15 or so-maybe closer to 9:30 JFC came on stage….This
was the first JFC show that I've attended
where there weren't any anti-JFC signs. The people there actually
supported them this show- even though there
were maybe only 30 people there when they played. Their set was better
than usual-I look upon them higher ever
since they said Happy B-day to me onstage at the Gherkin cd release
party 9-12-98. Their set included the hit
"Dream Girl" and other favorites such as "She's so cool". Next up was
Monkey. They put on their usual good show
and got people a little more into the skankin' mood. Some of the song I
recognized were "Artebella", "$30 suit",
"No color no power", "cha cha ska" and others which names have skipped
my mind. During Monkey, I went up to talk
to David at the merchandise table (he had asked me to do that before the
show) And I decided that finally to my
Blindspot collection I must add a shirt. So I ask David to look for a
large black Ax Zero, and I felt really bad,
because he went through both of their shirt boxes like twice and didn't
find one. Then I said I'd take the Blue
Blindspot logo one. So Now I have I shirt to add to my collection.
Finally around 11 pm Blindspot comes onstage! Wooo-hoo! I finally got
off my butt and danced- I was saving
every ounce of energy I had for them! So I head to my usual spot- front
row right between Achilles and Jeff.
I brought my camera this time, to take some pictures for the webpage-
so as soon as I get those developed
look for them on the page! So Vince and I are chillin' there waiting
for the band to come on- and if I'm not
mistaken I think it was Kim who came over and gave me a set list right
then b/c me and Vince were trying to
read it upside down. So here's what the dandy set-list reads- they
played a really short set this time- only 11 songs plus the encore.
Of course
Misfit
Accel. 0
Carp.
Fly
So tell me
Believe- Achilles dedicated this song to me, which was really awesome!
Thank you Achilles =0)
Mid Ground- a new song- quite up-beat I really liked it
Maude
Zaxxon
Wendy
(They finished Maude here- the doot-doot do do, horn part.)
Once again during Maude, David asked us to do a congo line, so we do,
but he didn't join us this time!
Next comes the awesome part of my story here. They leave the stage
(before they left some guy was throwing
change at the band like quarters and dimes and stuff) and everyone
starts shoutin, "BLIND SPOT!" Ross
from Slow Gherkin was to my right, and he had a "Y" drawn on his chest.
If I remember correctly AJ had the
"H" and I don't remember who had the "E", but Gherkin was trying to say
"HEY" (ahhhhh How Now Lowbrow flashbacks!)
to Blindspot. So they come back on stage, and They say how they're a
little ill-prepared for an encore, so they
give us one song. DR HUX. Ok, now it was some girls birthday- and mine
was last week. So this girl asked if she
could come onstage, and they let her, then Achilles asked me to come up,
so I did. It was so cool! So David tells
us that we're gonna have to dance with him-so we do. David let me sing
a bit into the mic, then Jeff and Achilles
were singing into the horn mics, and Jeff kinda waved me over to sing
with him. It was so awesome…Other than the fact
that I couldn't make my legs move to dance "properly" b/c my legs were
so exausted, so I ended up getting my feet stuck
in all the cords. It was fun dancing and singing onstage! So the song
ends and I get off the stage…after another quick
hug from David. the lights turn on.
Outside p-ville at like midnight, David comes outside, and KT and I
talked to him for a little while. I thanked him for
what he did tonight, and told him that we were gonna try to go see them
play on Saturday at the Phoenix. I told him we
just needed to find a hotel room. He said that If he was still living
there he'd let us stay with him, but he doesn't
live there. So then I do think he was kinda making fun of me for being
interested in attending Sonoma State university,
But he did say there's a lot more goin' on there than at Hayward-where
he's at. Boy this is a long review/story type thing…Ummmm
I think that concludes it, it was an awesome night. I came up with one
conclusion about why their set might have been so short.
maybe due to their new bassist Josh Clem (who seemed to fit right in
with these guys, and he smiled for all the pictures
I took of him)-maybe he's still learning some of the songs, but who
knows-that's just what I think. It was a pretty small
crowd tonight, that was kinda dissapointing. Whoever would miss this
band play would have to get their head examined. Well,
it's time to sign out here. I have to leave to drive to Sonoma in 7
hours, and I still need to go to sleep first. Later all,
take care, and keep the feet dancing to the beat!
All right, so after the nice drive up to Sonoma County, we call every
place frantically
looking for a hotel room to stay in. I finally find us a place in
downtown Santa Rosa. So
at like 5:30pm KT and I begin our journey to Petaluma, we hopped on 101
south for a nice traffic
packed ride. We finally get to The Phoenix, park the car and begin
looking for a place to eat
dinner. We had walked right by this Mexican restaurant, VIVA MEXICO
TROPI-CAL, and right off the
bat I had asked KT if she was in the mood for Mexican again- we had
eaten it the night before as well.
She said not really, so we walked around-pretty lost and not knowing
what we were looking for. After
about 45 minutes we decided maybe we should try this Mexican
place-afterall we didn't find anything
else that really appealed to us. So we're waiting to cross the street
(I love the chirping sidewalk
crossing signals) and finally we cross. As we contemplate whether or
not to go in we see Achilles and
David who had just walked out. They say "Hay" to us. I asked if it was
a good place to eat, and they
both said yeah. David recommended the Vegan menu. Achilles proceeds to
tell us that we'll be on their
guest list again. Woo-hoo! Achilles said he wished he would have known
we were gonna be down there so
we all could have eaten together. That sure would have been fun. But KT
and I enjoyed our Vegan Tostadas
all by ourselves.
Eventually we go back tot he Phoenix- neither of us had been there
before. We were both impressed by it.
What an awesome place for a concert. Any of you Santa Cruzers out there
who haven't been there, the closest
thing we have to it in Santa Cruz would be a nicer version of the Vets
Hall. So it took us 2 tries to get in,
because Blindspot hadn't submitted their guestlist yet the first time
we tried to get in. So we hung out in
the front until Achilles came out and told us he had just put us on, so
we followed him in.
KT and I kinda hung out at the Merchandise table with Jeff for a while,
until we decided to be brave enough to
go into the main room. Jeff told us that if we ended up going to school
up there that he'd be glad to show us
around. While at the merch table, we talked briefly to Phil of Gherkin
as well. We signed their guestbook with
the comment "no more How Now Lowbrow!" Then Matt of Gherkin came over
and Phil told him to look at our comments.
Hee hee hee… Matt asked me if I was the one with the birthday- and I
told him yup, and he wished me Happy Birthday- I
swear my birthday was not one day, but one month long in the
celebration!
First up at around 8:20pm was Animal Chin. I must admit that they
sounded much better than the last time I saw them with
Siren Six 6-20-98. They were having some trouble getting the crowd into
it, but they put on a good set.
JFC was up next (sheesh, I've seen them play 3 shows this month alone).
I have to give these guys a lot of credit (I know a
lot of my friends here in Santa Cruz might dis-own me for saying this).
They play like 200% better when they're not in Santa
Cruz. I had never seen them play outside of S.C., so I was kinda
surprised at how brilliant they sounded. Not to mention that
I now know all the words to the songs they play just due to the fact
that I've seen them so many times this month.
You have
to give these guys a lot of credit too for having the guts to come back
to S.C. after what has happened to them there.
During
their set I asked Jeff if they allow in-out privileges here, and he said
they do. That is awesome! So KT and I run
up to my
car and we grab my backpack, which has my camera in it. Now comes the
time for Hannah's act of stupidity-each story
has one!
So after I come in, I ask Jeff if I can stash my backpack under their
merch table. He says yeah, and guess what
I did? Stupid,clumsy me knocked a CD off the table. Doh!
Next up….BLINDSPOT! yeah!!!! They came out each one of them wearing a
shirt with an iridescent glow to it. They
looked nice. I right away started snapping photos- which will also
be put up on the page ASAP. It seemed to me-or the
best that my memory could recall anyway, that they played the same set
list that they played at Palookaville 2 nights ago- although
I couldn't find a set list anywhere at this show. They almost made it
appear as it they were figuring out what to play on the
spot- but I
guess we'll
never know. I would have to say that Blindspot put more energy into
their set for their "hometown" or as
close of one as they have. Probably one of the first things people
noticed about these guys tonight was that one of the guys was
having some trouble with his pants not staying on…and the zipper not
staying zipped. I don't know if this member wants
this revealed or not, so he shall remain nameless, but it remained a
struggle to keep his pants up the rest of the set…I
think he needs to invest in some new pants =0) hee hee hee…When they
played Maude this time, again they asked for a congo
line, and Achilles pointed me out and asked me to start it. So I did,
without thinking twice, grabbed KT and told her to follow me.
To my dismay, no one came behind her! How lame is that? But after half
of a circle, some one else had started on too, so we joined
theirs and eventually went back to our front row positions infront of
the horns as usual. At some point, Josh Clem got a proper
introduction to everyone, which was quite cute- he and David hugging- I
got pictures of that. Josh seems to have a great chemistry with
the rest of the guys, I deff. Think it was a good move to have him join
the band. When they played Dr. Hux, Achilles was singing into the
mic. On his T-bone, and he came over and put the T-bone mic in my face
so I could sing into it. David was at the other end of the
stage letting some girls sing too. For those who don't know, David told
us this is a song about some guy who wouldn't stop calling Jay.
I think it was during this song that Achilles and Jeff were licking each
other on the cheek and slapping each others faces.(Quite
reminding me of 2 of my friends, Whit and KT) It was quite
entertaining.I can't remember if I snapped photos or not. At the very
end
of the set- which the band seemed to drag on- wasting time as they
called it. Some girl came up on stage, kissed Kim on the cheek and
slipped a piece of paper into his pocket. Hee hee…Oh wait!! I almost
forgot a really funny thing…when they first came onstage David was
singing "Backstreet back Alright!" hee hee heee..It was very funny.
Then later James of Gherkin commented on that calling it the
Blindspot
side project "Blindstreet Boys".
While we were waiting for Gherkin to come on, some guys came up to me
and asked if they could sit with me. Who was I to
deny them. Then this one guy asked if I had been in Berkeley 2 weeks ago
at the Gherkin CD release, and I told him no, but
I had been at the Santa Cruz CD release the next day. He said that was
where he recognized me from. (and guy- if you're
reading this by some miracle,please go back to my main page and e-mail
me!!! I wanted to get your number-but left in a hurry)
So he kept me occupied between bands. We thoroughly discussed the new
album. He stood next to me when Gherkin played. Gherkin
was GREAT! =0) I had a blast dancing and screaming their lyrics too!
Seems to me they played the first half of the set list
which they played when they did the CD release in Santa Cruz. They had
amazing energy and put on a great show. Only one thing...
they only played a few songs off the new album, at the Santa Cruz
release show they played ALL of the songs. Poor Ross though,
his sax was broken so he just ran around on stage fooling around with
the other members and letting us in the front
row sing into his mic. Ut oh!!!! They played How Now Lowbrow!!! AHHHHH…
I went insane! Well I just did what they had
us do for the video shoot. When it got to the "how now lowbrow" parts,
Phil put down the mic towards me just for the heck
of it so I could sing. When they played Myers Flat, James came and sat
right infront of me on the speaker. Then when he went
to finish it he said "so let's finish this one off together" and put
the mic down so me and the 3 guys I was talking
with could sing. Then I got a mighty surprise- He stood up right
infront of me and started dancing and boy was it right
in my face. It was a great show!
After Gherkin came back onstage for a second encore and finished it,
Ross jumped in the air (atleast I think it was
Ross who committed this "crime") and accidentally kicked James right
where it counts, and he ran off stage in quite a
bit of pain. Well after that, KT and I went out front to get my back
pack from under the Blindspot merch table. Josh
was sitting there, and the first thing that popped into my head is what
I said, "Welcome to the band" and I shook
his hand. Then the drive back to Santa Rosa, and the end! I commend you
if you've read this far! Keep the feet
dancing to the beat until next time!
