-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 5, 2001: Phantom Planet live at the Hideout
(Chicago)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The drive to the Hideout was an interesting one...Claire and I
told my dad all about the show while trying not to freak out too
much about where we were headed or how unbelievably lucky we were
to be going there (this wasn’t very successful, surprise
surprise). We turned down the street and drove through the
industrial neighborhood that the bar is "hidden"
in. When we finally saw it, a now familiar little white
two-story house with a warm light glowing out from all the
windows, all the memories of my first Phantom Planet show came
flooding back. I REALLY love this place. We
approached the door and saw Suzanne outside, who told us that we
didn’t have to pay if we went in after 11:15. It was
11:10, so we decided to wait outside on the offchance that Claire
and I weren’t able to prove we were on the list and so my
dad wouldn’t have to pay. I ran back to the car and
grabbed my new PP t-shirt and my PP sweatshirt for us to wear to
the show, and we went in. When you first go in the Hideout,
there’s the "bar" area. There’s, um, a
bar and some tables and lots of people were hanging out in the
cramped area. We told the guy at the door that we were on
the list, but he said that the people at the back door would take
care of us. He didn’t look twice at Claire or I, who
are obviously not 21, and I guess that Brian, James and Fred (who
are19 like me and originally tried to get in with a fake dad at
the first show, haha) had no problem either. Oh yeah, we
were at least part of the "group of underagers" who got
into the first Hideout show that Suzanne mentioned in her email
update on Wednesday. And darn proud of it! We walked
toward the doors to the stage area, but I stopped when I heard a
screech, "Hey, it’s the kids!". It was
Katie, who owns the Hideout (I want her job) with her husband
Tim, and who we got to know pretty well the last time we were
here. She is the wonderful lady who let us in last time,
and took a picture of us with the guys when my camera ran out of
film. We chatted for a minute and she told me that
two bands had already played, and that there was one more before
Phantom Planet would go on around midnight. We said goodbye
and I headed into the room with the stage, where there was nobody
to check us off on the guest list, as promised, or make us
pay.
The stage area is set up like this: it’s a really small
room, with bar-style tables down the right side and open space
throughout the rest of the area. The whole room is done up
in wood paneling, and there are paintings and paper snowflakes
hanging all over. At the end of the room, there’s the
stage. It’s about the height of a standard table, with
no barricade or anything in front of it, and is pushed up against
the left side of the room to leave an aisle on the right side
that leads to the "backstage door" (quotes because it’s
just a door. nothing special). The guys, Claire, and
Erynn were already lined up in that aisle to watch the remaining
band, a really good Chicago group called Million Yen. Right
when I got up there, Alex came out the stage door. He saw
us and said "oh, you came!". We talked with him
for a minute and I remember telling him that Million Yen was a
good band. He told us that PP would play a full show, for
about 40 minutes (it wasn‘t going to be just
"California" like we thought). We asked if he was
excited, and he said that he definitely was. Sam came out
too and said hi, which was great. Million Yen played and I
very much enjoyed their set, although they only did three
songs. Hmmm. As soon as they were done, Claire and I
ran to the front and got a spot right on the stage in the
middle. We were followed by the guys, who pushed and tried
to steal our spots because they are SUCH gentlemen,
lol. Erynn stood behind Fred and I. My dad
stayed in the aisle, and got sweatshirt holding and camera
duty. The singer of Million Yen started taking down his
equipment and Claire and I complimented their set. I told
him that I really liked them and had heard them on the local
music radio show a few times, and he asked if I wanted a
CD. I said sure and he brought me one, saying "our
record company people are in the audience so don’t let them
see me giving you this!". Eventually Jason came out
and my dad said hi, and was greeted with a big "Bill!!! How
are you?". Claire and I called hello to him, and he looked
over and yelled "there they are!". Darren walked
on stage, we said hi, and he did a double take and said
"hey! you guys made it!". Same thing happened
with Jacques. Jason came on stage and I asked if they were
going to play "Surrender", because they did at the last
Hideout show and it absolutely rocked. He said that they
might, he wasn’t sure, and I told him that they definitely
should. Claire asked if they were taking requests, and he
said of course. We asked for "Winter Wonderland"
and he said they couldn’t do it, so Claire asked for
"Lonely Day" and he shot that one down also. He
told us that they were going to switch some songs from the last
set, adding in "Hey Now Girl", "Apply
Yourself" and "Can’t Take It".
"Can you play Lisa?". "No". Haha,
we were 0 for 3.
Roman and his crew were setting up lights all during this, and
running around with a little instrument that measured the light
levels. I didn’t know what to expect, but he didn’t
have any huge professional cameras or elaborate lighting setups,
so it didn’t change the look of the place very much.
Claire had a brief conversation with him, which she was very
excited about. The rest of the guys eventually came out,
and they put their hands in and did a "whoa Phantom
Planet" right on stage (don’t kill me if this isn’t
what they say. It’s currently 5:45 a.m.). They
went into "Shadows", and I was transfixed for the rest
of the show. There I was, somebody who once thought that I’d
probably never get to see Phantom Planet live, watching them with
my hands resting on the stage with a better view than I had at my
graduation party where bands played in my own garage. I’ll
admit that every few songs, I’d stop singing along, think
about where I was and how randomly I got there, and get a bit
teary-eyed. That must have looked really really funny, now
that I think about it J The show really was moving
though. And I mean moving in both senses of the word:
it was of course very emotional to watch Phantom Planet rock
harder than I’d ever seen them or any other band do, but it
was also moving in that they were going CRAZY!! Darren and
Sam owned their little territory and played their hearts
out. Alex ran all over the stage, danced, prowled,
collapsed, you name it. Jacques kept crouching and jumping
all over. And Jason was a maniac. Yes, a
MANIAC. All of this big action was occurring on a very
small stage, and it was scary at times because I felt sure that
somebody would hurt themselves. To give you an idea, during
one song (I think it was "Apply Yourself", but the
whole night is such a blur), Alex danced on top of Jason’s
kick drum and his head grazed the ceiling. The smallness of
the stage amplified the energy of the show, and made the guys
seem bigger than life and down to earth at the same time.
If I had to pick recurring themes for the night, they would be
breaking guitar strings and laughing. The first of these
happened ALL the time. It was remarkable. Alex would
be playing, break a string, put down his guitar and roam the
stage with just the mic, only to break another string on his
newly-fixed guitar in the very next song. He and Darren
especially had to keep switching, and Darren did indeed in his
frustration rip out all of his strings at one point. Alex
kindly pointed out to all of us that his spare guitar has a
picture of a wounded hand on it, and also said that he hoped he
didn’t look too stupid running around without an
instrument. He didn’t. Laughing, too, happened
all night. They just always looked so happy and carefree,
and took us all right with them. Sam describes it really
well in his most recent tour diary, when he talks about how this
second performance was more of a laugh-and-have-fun show, rather
than a we-need-to-impress-people show. I think that they
were even more impressive, though, when they weren’t trying
to be. You could tell that the guys felt totally
comfortable and free to completely let loose. The
Hideout crowd was more intimate, with the few PP fans crowding
the stage while the rest of the audience chilled and
open-mindedly listened to the music. There was no concrete
set list. Pete Yorn and PP’s friends from the Chicago
band Kill Hannah yelled out from the middle of the crowd.
Roman darted back and forth, getting new camera angles,
apparently stepping on people, and recording everything.
Most of the front row (us!) wore our PP shirts proudly and
screamed ourselves hoarse (perhaps in exchange for us wearing our
PP gear, Sam wore a pin that Claire gave him at the bottom of his
t-shirt). The guys completely interacted with the crowd, and
especially with each other. They’d play back to back,
rest their heads on each other’s shoulders, play each other’s
instruments, share mics, and constantly invade each other’s
already-tiny space. They’ve done this the other times
I’ve seen them, but this time really took it up a notch and
almost seemed to act as one person (ok, maybe one person with
multiple personalities and spasm-ing body parts). For
instance, once Sam came up behind Alex and looped his arms in
around him so he could play his guitar while Alex held the mic
and sang. Teamwork at its best. They all talked to
each other and constantly cracked up at their fellow bandmates’
antics. It was wonderful to see them visibly enjoying
themselves so much, and to see the almost-permanent grins on
their faces.
I felt so much a part of this show. Given that we were so
close (and often in front of the cameras), it sometimes seemed as
if we might as well have been on stage. Although nothing we
were doing could compete with the show PP was putting on: we just
tried to keep up with singing along and dancing and getting lost
in the music. My face was directly at Alex’s guitar’s
level especially when he came up to the edge of the stage (when
he was wearing it. When he wasn’t, I looked away. You do the
math…I also had to avert my eyes during "In Our Darkest
Hour" when Alex courteously came and stuck his butt in our
faces for awhile before he did a leap toward the drum set.
Hmmm). I play guitar, so I loved being able to watch him
play and pick up little bits of the songs. It was also cool
because we could hear Jacques’s parts a lot louder since we
were right by his monitor, and it gave a lot of the songs a
slightly different feel. We laughed so much too, especially
in between songs. At the beginning of the show, Alex
noticed that a hum that came out of the monitors for the entire
show was amplified when he raised his arms and/or breathed on the
mic. He raised his arms and opened his mouth and it looked
like this strange, monster-ish noise was coming from him.
Evidently very amused, he did this a few times and finally
apologized to us for wasting time. Everyone was cracking
up. Early on in the show, Claire spotted one of Jason’s
broken drumsticks lying on stage and told me that she really
wanted it. Awhile later, Alex turned around, picked it up
and licked it. He dangled it in front of him and said
"um, does anybody want this?". Claire wasn’t
too thrilled with the just-licked factor, but she really wanted
that drumstick so she said "sure, I’ll have it".
Just as she was taking it from him, Alex said proudly into the
mic "I licked that. That’s gross." He looked
down (all 2 feet away) at her and said "Hey, you’re
gross!", to which she quickly retorted, "no Alex, you’re
gross for licking a drumstick!" and he laughed.
Another time, he started singing "Chop Suey" by System
of a Down and ended the mini-cover with a terrific scream.
All red in the face and clutching his chest, he said in this
womanly voice, "I’m sorry, I’ve had to get that
off my chest for SO long!"
Right before "California", Jacques said that he thought
it was his duty to tell the public that the show was being
recorded for the video for this song. During this, Alex was
busy at the piano, trying to find the perfect spot to hold his
mic so the piano could be heard. This piano is so
great. It’s old and looks like it would be completely
out of tune, but it’s definitely not (I played it after the
last show, so I was excited that they were going to use it in the
video!). He finally got it, and Roman went right over there
and taped Alex playing the intro close up. They went into
the song, and played it especially well.
Another highlight was in the middle of the set, when they played
"Lisa". It was an extremely action packed few minutes.
First of all, Jason had said that they wouldn’t play it when
we requested it, so it was a nice surprise. And it was my
first time seeing it live. Alex sang the first verse to
Darren, looking up at him from the floor of the stage.
Darren looked very amused. Alex eventually made his way
back to the center and edge of the stage, and started to lean
out. And his mic cord started to hit me in the face, it was
sort of swinging back and forth. I looked up to kind of
lean back at the exact instant that he glanced down and saw that
it was hitting me. He got this horrified and apologetic
look on his face and grabbed that cord away so fast! In the
second verse, Jacques was politely asked what he said to Alex
(which I was actually very excited to hear live because I am a
nerd) and he just saluted and laughed in reply. Jacques,
show some respect! Hehe. During the part after the
second chorus, you know, where there’s the strange guitar
notes that keep going up in pitch? Are you with me? Find it
on your CD if you must, you have to know what I’m talking
about to appreciate this. Ready? You sure? Ok. Alex,
who was facing Jason, would bring his arms up in time with each
note in a manner that I can only describe as a cross between an
orchestra conductor and a wizard. Quick, picture that! I cannot
tell you how entertaining that was, but I’m sure you can
guess. Use this mental image for endless hours of
amusement. After this, I couldn’t tell you exactly
what happened because it moved so fast. All I know is that
Alex came over to Claire and I, crouched down right in our faces,
pointed at us and said "you two", shoved the mic in
between all three of us and all of the sudden we were belting out
the last chorus with him. WOW!!!! Not only could we
hear his voice without amplification, which is always nice, but
we were singing the freakin song together in this tight little
huddle of rock and roll. And out of the corner of my eye, I
saw Roman recording the entire moment for posterity. Bless
that wonderful wonderful man. I swear, if that makes it
into the video, I will soil myself. Ok, umm, anyway…
"All Over Again" rocked, as usual. Jason did an
amazing drum solo during it, which whipped the crowd into a
frenzy. Darren also played part of the song while perched
on Jason’s drum. I thought the show was over, which
sucked, but I would have been more than satisfied. But oh
no, we were in for quite a bit more. Jason lured Mr. Pete
Yorn onto the stage to assume the drummer’s position for
"Surrender" (yessss!) because Pete "knows this
song note for note on the drums". Then Jason wondered
aloud what he’d do, which was echoed by Alex. Claire,
always quick with a suggestion, proclaimed that "Jason will
be the dancer!" and Alex agreed, demonstrating the Mighty
Mighty Bosstones-esque dance that Jason would evidently be
treating us with. The song began, and I made a fool of
myself very nicely by singing and bouncing around even more
energetically than usual (come on, Phantom Planet + Cheap Trick
IN Chicago!). Jason did indeed start to dance, hopping
around so enthusiastically, in fact, that he almost lost his
pants. Pete was terrific at the drums, I had no idea he
could play them! By this time, all was complete
chaos. I couldn’t tell you for the life of me who sang
what parts, because I think that Jason, Sam, Alex and Jacques all
were on mics at some point. I do know that Alex sang the
first verse, because he sang the famous first line, "Mother
told me, yes she told me, I’d meet girls like you"
directly to Claire. People were running all over the stage,
going completely nuts, singing, jumping, dancing…. Like
Suzanne wrote in the tour diary, Jason came up to the front of
the stage and removed his shoes and started clapping with
them. The pandemonium continued, each person seeming to try
to top everyone else. I think that if they had had the
means to set the stage on fire or something, they might have done
it (well…maybe that’s going a bit far, but you get the
picture). And then it was over.
I could tell that they weren’t ready to have the show be
finished, and we certainly agreed with that. Alex said to
the crowd, "Should I blow my voice out completely?" and
we all yelled "yes!". He started laughing
because the two tour managers were the only ones in the crowd who
said very forceful "NO"s. Jason pulled off his
socks, said "I GOTTA go Shoeless Joe Jackson on this
bitch!" and threw his socks at the crowd. One gracefully
landed on Alex’s mic stand. One of the guys
introduced the song, and they ripped into "Sabotage" by
the Beastie Boys. Picture the previous song, minus Pete and
Jason the dancer, plus Alex jumping into the crowd and rocking
out with one girl who was getting really into it. It was
awesome. I love this song, and don’t know how to
describe their version other than to say was a GREAT way to close
the show! Something familiar, but different, and a song
where each of the guys has the opportunity to completely rock
it. And did they ever! A couple of highlights were
the part where there’s just the bass going really loud and
Sam coming to the edge of the stage, putting his foot up on the
monitor, and sticking his bass out over the crowd while he played
it...it looked and sounded so cool! Towards the end of the
song, Alex got in kind of the crabwalk position with one arm on
the floor to support himself. I thought he was going to
jump up and keep switching which arm he put on the floor (a la
1991), but he instead did an...interesting..."sexy"
slow-motion thrusting dance that I could not help laughing at no
matter how hard I tried not to. Jason did a little
somersault over his drums and the guys left the
stage.
As we were beginning to come out of our concert stupor and
realize what we had just experienced, a guy came over to us
and said that we’d have to follow him backstage so we could
sign release forms to be in the video. We were *more* than
happy to comply, and followed the nice man. On the way, I
saw Jason and Sam, and complimented them all on the show. I
told Jason that it was the best show I’d ever seen and he
said "good, so we didn’t make total asses out of
ourselves?" or something like that. Asses? Are you
kidding me? Psh. So we got backstage and then got
kicked out, which was kind of funny. On the way OUT, we
walked past Pete Yorn and I told him great job at the Metro
show. He gave me a nice smile and said thank you. We also
passed Alex and Claire thanked him for letting us sing with
him. "Oh, no problem. I hope my breath didn‘t
smell too bad!" We finally congregated by the stage,
and waited for the guy to bring the forms out to us. I went
over to my dad, who was talking to Darren, to get my sweatshirt
in the meantime. My dad told me that Darren was going to
take care of me in Amsterdam, and I was kind of confused but told
D that the show was amazing. He said something like,
"I want you to understand that that show was not
normal, we were all having fun, but acting really stupid
too" and my dad said "so you’re not going to
play like that every night? I think you should!" and Darren
said "we’d die if we played like that every night! I
mean, I broke 5 strings, that’s insane. I’m
bleeding!". I had to leave then to sign the forms, but
later on my dad told me that he’d told Darren that I was
going to see them in Amsterdam while I’m abroad, to which D
said "you’re letting your daughter go to AMSTERDAM?? It’s
kind of wild!". Hahaha. My dad said that I could
handle it, but that Darren should look out for me anyway.
Don’t think that’ll actually happen, but it’s a
nice thought.
We signed the forms, which basically said that we gave them the
rights to use our likeness in the video. The best part was
that the line we had to write our name on said
"Performer:", which made us feel way more important
than we actually were ;) I found Jacques then, and said
"I don’t remember if I’ve said this to you yet,
but the show was awesome!" He put his hands on my arms
and smiled and said "Nope, you haven’t talked to me
yet" so I repeated that it was the best show I’ve
ever been to. And that I couldn’t wait for Amsterdam,
to which he said "that’s right, and you’re going
to take the ferry because you’ll be right across from
there!". Hehe, that’s what I had told him at the
Metro earlier. Brian, James and Fred came over and started
talking to Jacques about guitar playing then, and Roman was still
videotaping everything. Claire asked Jacques if he thought
we could get a group picture and he said "good luck. i
don‘t know where Alex is". She said, "The
bar maybe?" and was off to find him. We finally
rounded up everybody for the picture and while Claire and I were
posing with the band, Jason proclaimed "now, I think THIS
should be our album cover!". Jacques said
"Phantom Planet with the fans?" and he said
"yeah!". I had my jacket on and Jacques started
pulling on it, saying, "come on, you have to show off the
t-shirt for the picture!" because I had my new PP one
on underneath, hehe. My dad took a picture, then somebody
who was with the band snapped one, and Roman of course was there
to videotape. So we had no idea which camera to look at and
our picture turned out kind of funny looking, lol. My dad
and I started talking to Jason, and I mentioned (can you tell I’m
just a BIT excited about this? hehe) Amsterdam to him. He
said, "whoa, are you just coming for the heck of it?",
but I said no, I was going to be in England for the semester and
he was like "wow cool!!! Yeah, you have to come then!!
We’ll put you on the list!". I don’t care
about the list, as long as I get to go, but again it’s a
nice thought. We had to get going, and Jason gave Claire
and I a hug and shook my dad’s hand. We said bye to
Brian, James and Fred (who apparently stayed an hour later while
Alex played requests for them on the piano. He played
classical stuff, The Strokes, "California"….ahhh
why couldn’t I stay!!!). Waved to Jacques and
Sam. I said goodbye to Darren, who was talking to a friend,
but stopped for a sec and put his arm around me and said thanks
for coming and he’d see Claire in Chicago and me in
Amsterdam. And we left and drove home. And now I’m
back at school taking finals. Sigh.
And that, my friends, is my story. It honestly seems like a
dream. I don’t know how everything fell into place,
but it did somehow and I’m so grateful for it. I have
never seen such talent and energy and great songwriting in one
group. And I’ve also never met a nicer or more down to
earth group of guys, let alone band. I emailed Jacques and he
wrote back that playing these two shows was "more than a
pleasure for us" and I’m so glad they feel that way
too. We all know that it’s just a matter of time
before they hit it big, and this experience only reaffirmed that
in my mind. They won’t change though, and we’re
lucky for that!
Written by Katie