March 4th was Planet X's second performance at the Stoney Inn in Woodland, CA. Again we were preforming with Tommy Mill's Oil Kan as headliners, but this time with juli Swann as opening act.

A rather heavy rainstorm had desended on Sacramento this particular week, and unfortunately the stage area at the Stoney Inn is constructed on a patio which is simply covered both peices of corregated plastic over a bare wood frame.

Needless to say, it leaks.

It leaks a LOT.

The first group discover this was juli Swann and her percussionist Ken Rego, who had to completely move all of their equipment off of the stage before they played because nearly on of the laeks that were occuring - we're occuring on the stage. Inspite of these elemental worries juli and Ken carried on and completed their set. Normally juli and Ken perform as a duo, but on occasion I have seen them perform as a trio, with juli daughter Asia providing backing vocals. The additional harmonies and counter point that Asia provided really fills out their sound, and I hope that they do more performances as a threesome in the future. (Baring school and age restrictions as Asia is still a teenager).

Next to brave the waterfall was us. Unfortunately Mitch had brought his larger drumkit in expectation of the Stoney's comparitively roomy stage, but that plan worked against him as he tried - seemingly in vain - to find a spot that didn't have a stream of water dripping down on to his drums. Each time he would move the kit, a new stream would pop-up, followed by an exclaimation of "SH#T" - and more movement and adjusting. AFter about 15 mins he eventually squeezed his kit into the far back corner with water dropping to either side and just in front of him kick drums. We used a bucket stuff with a rag to keep the water from splashing and damaging Darryl's fluorescent paintings on the drum heads,

All the water through us a little bit off out game, but we rebounded and ram through our set as best as we could. The Stoney crowd was patient as I we did everything we could to make that wait worth their time, performing with a fury - borne of frustration - and challening that back out into the music. There were admittedly some flubs, largely because we hadn't really had an oppurtunity to rehease in a few weeks. We've actually been using our gigs almost as reheasal time, which since their either free - or PAY US - is a better deal that most reheasal spaces provide. For the most part we got through it unscathed... at least until a new stream of water began to fall, bouncing off the back wall, down onto Mitch's ride cymbal and pooling on his floor Tom head. Which of course cause the water to splash up into his face each time he played the tom.

"SH#T!"

You could say that again, brutha.

Last up was Oil Kan. The change over from us to them went far faster than usual as Mitch was sitting in for their drummer. We simply removed the "Planet X" kick drum heads and replaced them with normal white ones - and they were pretty much ready to go. Later on, Ron joined Tommy on Guitar for a duet. Most people stayed until the very end of the show at nearly 2sm. Even a couple friends of Darryl's in the band One Eyed Jack.

Overall, a good time and lots of drinking was had by all.

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