(Gig # 59) Maui Pizza is a fairly new venue that has opened up for All Ages shows in the Rocklin area, several miles northeast of Sacramento. I'd heard a lot, both positive and negative about it - and a lot of fairly well-known local bands, such as Luxt, The Beat Officers and 7thStandard had been playing their recently. As a result we were pretty excited about this gig, and had high hopes for it.

Well, we weren't disappointed.

Inspite of rumors of problems with person booking the shows, we ran into very few problems other than the fact that we weren't sure about who was providing the PA. We had tried to arrange things with the other bands, but that hadn't really come together -- so we brought our own just in case - but Darryl (guitar) - who was responsible for that P.A., had to take it with him when he left right after we finished playing. There was a short period of confusion while we tried to make people that they were going to need a replacement PA for all the bands following us, there was also an issue of band order - and one of the groups scheduled to play this show had cancelled (Without Warning -- no, that's the *name* of the band that cancelled, not an editorial comment). But everything was worked out when the woman in charge of booking at Maui simply had us all come together and have short meeting to resolve everything. The first two bands (Submission and Relise) decided on which would be first and second by flipping a coin. We were third, and a forth band was called to come in after us - while a house P.A. would be brought in for them.

No problem.

Overall, it was a pretty relaxing show (for us). We got a chance to talk to the guys in Submission for quite a bit out in the parking lot. They were basically kids. Teenagers - like all the other groups playing and most of the audience.

Submission's bassist had forgetten to bring his rig -- so they were performing with just a singer, guitar and drums -- but they did real well inspite of that. They need to practice a bit, but they had that hardcore/punk/thrash/metal vibe down pretty good. Their show was real energetic, if a bit loose and chaotic. Nice guys, though.

Relise performed second, and had much more of a Nirvana/Green Day sound going on. Like Submission, for what they lacked in proficiency -- they made up for in enthusiasum. Nobody was sitting there, with there arms folded looking like --"hey, *I* could do that so much better" - they were just kicking back and enjoying the vibe.

The place wasn't packed, but it had a good number of kids (about 100) by the time they were done. Kids that to me, seemed very starved for live entertainment and very appreciative of every act that played. Man, what a change of pace this was.

Then came our turn.

I think we kinda shocked them, because I don't think they were expecting a band like us - once we started. We've grown gradually tighter and tighter with each show, and our tone is HELLA fat these days. I mean, Submission and Relise were basically - just-barely-out-of-the-garage bands. We're not like that. We aren't perfect, but we are fairly polished and well reheased.

Gradually though, shock turned to enthusiam and everybody got into the groove. We even put on one of our better performances too date.

The only funky moment was when I tripped over the drum kit. Maui's stage is shaped rather oddly. There's a main section and then off to the right is a raised area. Most bands place their drummer on the raised area -- but we normally have both Sammy (rythm guitar) and Mike (bass) on that side and there wasn't enough room for all three of them. So as a result we moved the drums to the lower area - which was much smaller - and which put them directly behind me. Practically under my ass, actually. So at one point - while jumping all over the stage as I usually do -- I tripped on a cymbal stand while singing and almost went for a spill -- but after a few years of experience with the sort of thing, I was able to catch myself, and the cymbal stand before either of us completely fell -- and straighten up without interrupting the vocal line I was singing.

Experience (and luck) wins out again.

The last band up - whose never I never discovered - had an even better response than we did. A lot of kids got up on their feet and were right up at the front of the stage. They weren't bad. Again, they were all pretty young -- the oldest guy was probably 18. They were a five peice (twin guitar, bass, drums, vocals) old-school metal band. I mean, that they sounded modern - but not *too* modern. Clearly, they had a strong Metallica influence, especially since they performed two Metallica covers ("Fade to Black" & "Master of Puppets"). It was pretty weird seeing kids that young who were that much into songs that were released and recorded when they were between 2 and 5 years old. They even did all the guitar solos, even though they didn't nail 'em. They gave it a pretty good High-School try.

It kinda warmed my heart seeing how into this show all these kids were. All I can say is that Maui Pizza kicks a whole lot of ass, and we plan to go back as soon as we can. From what I could tell, they would certainly welcome us.