Return to the Hogshead

Most of the "fun" of this show actually took place before the show even began. Two days previously we'd found out that there had been a mix-up on the dates and that our next scheduled show - at the Distillery - wasn't going to have a headliner and primary draw anymore because Penetrator (one of the bands we were about to play with this particular evening) couldn't make it on that date.

We needed to find somone within a week who fit our style of music, put on a decent show and who could draw a respectable crowd downtown (which was no mean feat - since the downtown crowd tends to go for either for punk, roots rock, ska or punk...) And for me, another preference was for it to be a band that we knew, but that we hadn't played with before with this current lineup. In a rush, we sent out a bunch of calls and contacts to Plate, Juggernaut, Mindphyx, and Circle of 5ths - but most of them were busy that night or couldn't give us an answer soon enough. Then we tried Shallow (already booked to play Maui Pizza that night), as far as I knew Oil Kan/No Sighlence was still breaking in a new drummer, and Zinc Bomb was still missing a couple members. Our options were begining to run out.

I initially resisted asking Girth because we already have so many gigs scheduled with them, but we still hadn't found anyone by the start of the Hogshead show -- and, since they were already at the show and we could get an answer pretty much right away instead having to wait for the band to contact all the members and check their schedules - we asked Girth if they could do it.

They said "Yes" - and that headache was over.

PENETRATOR

With that out of the way, we we're able to concentrate on tonights show. And there was plenty to concentrate on, since Hogshead is a B.Y.O.P.A. venue. As with our last show at Sports Nutz, Girth had brought their P.A., lights and drum riser - but there soundman Tom, didn't come. Which meant that he didn't bring his mixing board - so we brought Darryl's and tried to mix and match it with Mark from Girth's system, which was no easy task. It took quite a while to get everything put together and we were still missing some cables and connectors in order to get everything up and running by showtime.

Eventually - almost 30 minutes late - we had the P.A. working - all except for the monitors, which was a real drag. Penetrator was up first and they were good sports about it, even though they had to hear their vocals by listening to it echo against the back wall. Fortunately Hogshead is small enough for that to work. I ran the P.A. for them, while Marc from Girth tried to build the connector we needed and Darryl drove back to our rehearsal space for the missing cables.

Inspite of the sound problems, Penetrator put on a great show, running through their songs "Feed My Dirty Mind" and "Mr Mad" like seasoned pros. I love watching these guys play, because they have such a good time onstage and are so tight, it's scary. Even with only short notice, they were able to bring a few people to the gig and that's always a good thing. It's no wonder that they've started to become a good draw at the Distillery, with their brand of old-school Metallica/Dokken influenced Metal. They'd run into some difficulties playing with the hardcore punk groups that tend to be at the Distillery on a regular basis, but with us and Girth - they're fit just fine. In fact, I think that our current material is much more "modern" sounding than theirs -- but that's ok, unlike a lot of people these days, I don't have any problems at all with old-school hard rock/metal - and neither did the crowd.

Second up, was GIRTH. By this point in time Darryl had returned, and he replaced the hand-made connector Mark had put together with one of his so that the monitors finally started to work. I wish we'd been able to get them running sooner for Penetrator, because they certainly deserved them. Maybe next time.

GIRTH destroyed the place. It was their first Hogshead show and I think they impressed them quite a bit, especially with their full-on smoke and lights show.

Last up, was us - Planet X. Since everything had started late -- we were a little pressed for time. It was 1am by the time we began and most of Penetrator and Girth's fans had already left -- but it was ok by us, because our fans, mostly recruited by Mike (Bass) and Treno (Drums) were still there.

Our set went well, certainly better than it had last time at Sports Nutz. There we're a few flubs, a bit too much bottom end on the kick drum - but no biggies. A lot of the crowd (particularly members of Girth) were really into it, and were standing right up front. Unfortunate that created a bit of tension between the people that wanted to stand and those who wanted to sit - but in total, it was all good. We played all of our songs, and finished almost precisely at 2am, closing time.

Nothing left to do but pack up all the gear (including the stage) and get ready for the next show.

Another night in the life...

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