Planet X - baked and burned at the Smoke Shop

Today was our first show at a brand new venue - The Smoke Shop in Auburn, CA. We hadn't played in Auburn since our CD release Webcase at Rejobi back in February, so it was sort of a nice "return engagment". The Smoke Shop is essentially a average size bar. The stage is triangle shaped and setup in one corner. Playing with us this particular night were the bands Smarty (who we've previous played with at the Boardwalk) and Pipedown.

As usual, there was drama involving the lineup. Originally Pipedown was supposed to open the show with Smarty headlining, however when we arrived Pipedown apparently made a stink and manage to move themselves into the middle slot, with Smarty first and us - last. At the time we didn't really mind, Auburn isn't that far away and we we're yet sure whether or not they suffered from the "Suicide Slot curse" - where most of the crowd leaves before the last band even gets started.

Smarty is a cool pop rock band with a strong punk influence, but unlike some bands who use being "Punk" as an excuse to play sloppily (IMO) - Smarty is a really GOOD band even without being "Punk". They're songs are strong and catchy - and their stage show is really engaging. The were no monitors included in the sound system so their singer had to constantly leave the stage and stand out in front of the band in order to hear himself. They really need some new gear and definately some monitors at the Smoke Shop, but for now they were able to do what they could.

Then Pipedown took the stage, eventually. They're a twin guitar-Hardcore band of fairly young guys. Some of the guys in Smarty are pretty old (well past their 30's) - and starting to show it with natural balding patterns. Actually the same thing is true of some of us in Planet X, but we still ROCK. Anyway, they were really- really - really slow putting their gear together and getting it ready. Then when it finally was all onstage, they let it sit there for a good 20-25 minutes before they started at 10:30pm. Soundwise they were way too loud, and I'm not just saying that because I'm older than them - they were. All of their vocals were screams - period. The guitar were ratty and thrashy sounding and just barely in tune.

Ironically, they had a GREAT crowd response. It seems that Pipedown is from Auburn and all their high-school buddies came out to see them, some with parents in tow. I might have enjoyed them a little more myself if their materiel had a little more variety to it, or if they hadn't played for an hour and 15 minutes and then took another 20-30 minutes to get their gear offstage before we could even start.

As a result it was 1am by the time we began our first song and we only played for 40 minutes, which for us is a pretty short set. And yes, the "Suicide Slot" does exist in Auburn, at least when a Hard Rock band plays with a teenage Hardcore Punk band it does. Most of the guys in Pipedown left - and took their crowd with them - before we even began, however Smarty who had played first nearly 3 1/2 hours previous, was still there, at least until we'd gotten through the main part of our set.

In a way, it's probably good that they split because we really didn't have a good show that night. At least not to us. Several songs false-started and a couple minor train wrecks occured which shouldn't have - probably due to frustration at being jerked around again. The bartender dug us, as did a couple of fans from who'd seen us previously at Club 65 and had come out to see what was going on. They stayed all the way until the end of the show at 2am. We had invited and half-expected George Lynch to show up, as he now lives in Auburn and we had let him know about the show when we met him at his guitar clinic the previous week. But he didn't make it out. In the end, it was still a decent show and a learning experience.

"Don't play with Teenage-Hardcore-Punk bands." - just like matches, you might get burned.

I'm not sure we'll do another show with Pipedown if we have the option -- even some of the other people, who I will not specifically name in order to protect the guilty, didn't like Pipedown's snotty attitude either. They called them ...

"...Put the Crack-Pipedown"

Hey, I just report the news - I don't make it up myself. That's what the man said, Ok? It's a free country remember? I didn't say it - i'm just quoting, honest...

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