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April 10, 2002: Phantom Planet live at the Borderline (London)
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I’m afraid that any of you who read my massive reviews of the December 5th Phantom Planet shows are now cringing in terror at the prospect of another epic. Perhaps it will be, perhaps it won’t. I really can’t tell until I start to write it, so you’ll have to try your luck and utilize that skimming ability you’ve probably honed so well in school. Speaking of those last reviews, I now wish I could go back and edit them to be less, um, enthusiastic, but they have to stand as they are. I know that they make me seem about 12 years old, completely and utterly obsessed, and in love with one or more of the band members. In reality, I’m 19, was excited about my favorite band putting on my favorite-ever show, and in the midst of final exam-induced meltdown. And while I think that the gentlemen of Phantom Planet are pure joy and sunshine, I honestly have no interest in becoming the mother of any of their children/dragging them to the nearest Vegas-esque wedding chapel/having them whisper Shakespearean sonnets into my ear/etc. Just wanted to get that out into the open and try to earn back at least an ounce of credibility. Ok. NOW for an account of the rock extravaganza that was the April 10th London Borderline show:

I got the news in a hostel in Rome. Phantom Planet was rumored to be opening for The Vines in London on April 9th, the day after I was due to return to the UK to continue my semester abroad there. Since I had considered going to that show anyway and it was now sold out, I was more than a little frustrated. I frankly didn’t have the time to go on a ticket-hunt like I’d had to do for their last show (although I do love Phantom Planet, the motto of my trip was not "when in Rome… scramble around for concert tickets"). Thankfully, a day or so later, I got the announcement that they’d be headlining a show the following night and I promptly booked my tickets. Problem solved.

On the day of the show, my good friend Lisa and I took the familiar two hour train ride into London. I’d been telling her about Phantom Planet for ages and lent her The Guest the day before, and she’d liked what she’d heard. It was strange and sad not to be going to the show with Claire, but then again, it was strange going to see Phantom Planet in London in the first place. When we arrived in London, Lisa and I went to the Virgin Megastore (where I bought five CDs. oops), then wandered the area a bit, had some dinner, bought disposable cameras (3 for the price of 2: score!), and headed for the venue. I’m forgetting that most of you aren’t familiar with London, so I’ll do a quick briefing on the area and venue, because both are great. Pretend you’re on a tour bus and listening to this over a static-y loudspeaker, for authenticity’s sake. The Borderline is a venue in London’s West End, which is a famous area full of restaurants, pubs, bars, clubs, stores, cinemas, and masses of people. It’s very well-known for theater, as it’s the main district for it in London. At any rate, it’s the kind of exciting, lively place where you can be walking around outside on, say, a Thursday at four a.m. and still run across huge crowds of people. Not that I’d know anything about that… cough. So moving on, The Borderline holds a little under 300 people and has been host to many very famous bands and many up-and-coming ones as well. I’d name drop, but I wouldn’t know who to pick. It’s a small venue and has a very cosy feel. In other words, this was an excellent place for Phantom Planet to be playing.

We walked up to the entrance just as Alex was walking out. I said hello to him and he looked at me a bit quizzically (perhaps because I actually knew who he was) before saying hi and going off to eat somewhere. After giving our booking code and names (surprised we didn’t have to do a secret handshake as well), Lisa and I were allowed inside. We ran into Jason on the stairs. I said hi and told him that I was Katie from Chicago and that I was Bill’s daughter (read previous reviews on the site to understand why I’d mention my dad). He said, "Yeah, I know". I could tell that he remembered me, but not who I specifically was. He made a good solid effort at trying to make me think so, though, so he gets points for that, haha. Understandably, he was a bit confused and said "What are you doing over here?" and I told him that I was studying in England, so of course I wouldn’t miss this show for anything. I introduced him to Lisa and he very sincerely thanked us both for coming. When we finally made it into the stage area, a group of three guys were on their way out. The only one I could really see was Jacques (as it was dark and shadowy down there), and as they walked out, he was watching us. Probably thinking something along the lines of, "I’ve seen that girl before, I hope she’s not a psycho!" We sat down at the bar, noted that PP’s gear was already set up so there wouldn’t be a support band, and listened in amusement at the American accents we heard around us. Pretty soon though, the place started to fill up, and the majority of the crowd was British. We took a place right at the edge of the stage (directly in front of where Sam would be stationed later on) and chatted with people, finding out that some had come just because of word of mouth or they had seen Phantom Planet opening for Garbage or The Vines one of the two previous nights. The setlist was already taped to the stage, and we were thrilled to see that we wouldn’t have to beg and bribe for "Lonely Day", as it was already included. Our only objective was to get them to play "Lisa" because I thought it would be funny for Lisa to hear it. And it rocks. By this time, the guys had returned from dinner. Alex walked past me, waved, gave me a big smile, and said hi before I could even say anything. The guys milled around the place and it seemed that virtually nobody knew who they were. A few minutes later, they simply walked onstage and abruptly ripped into the show.

Naturally, "Shadows" came first. Naturally, it was terrific. It sounded different to me, especially at the very beginning. The pre-guitar riff "noise" was rougher, yet more structured. I was always a fan of the abstract sounding intro, but I think this got people's attention better. For a band that was basically unheard of in the UK until that week, grabbing the crowd's attention early on was vitally important. It proved to be no problem for Phantom Planet, who quickly took the small crowd at Borderline and turned them into a captivated and enthusiastic group of new fans. They even had people, presumably from outside, poking their heads downstairs to get a look at who was playing. After roughly one and a half songs, Lisa turned to me with a huge grin on her face and said (well, yelled), "I REALLY like this band!!!!!" As a fairly old fan who's been lucky enough to see them quite a few times in the past several months, it was very exciting to see these new people getting into the show. I can remember the initial reaction that I had to their music all those years ago and it was fun watching people respond in the same way. At this show, I think I was the only person singing along. At the next one, I don't think that'll be the case. Which is good, because really, who wants to hear me sing?

After "Shadows", I believe they pushed straight into "In Our Darkest Hour". By the time they'd gone through both these songs, I could already tell that they'd improved a great deal since I saw them in December. I think I said that in my last review too, but it's the honest truth. They don't merely fall into a routine, they change songs slightly and continually develop their individual parts. I don't know if it was the fact that I hadn't seen them in awhile, or that they were in a new country, or that the last time I saw them they were playing at a bar with a gigantic fish and paper snowflakes hanging in the background, but they seemed a bit more serious at this show. You could tell they were having fun--the grins on their faces at any given moment were evidence of that – but they just appeared more professional at this one. The sound quality was heaps better, the songs were tighter, their antics seemed ever so slightly more controlled, and they didn’t talk or joke around as much in between songs. It could have even been the fact that I myself was seeing them in a less familiar environment, so I perceived it differently. None of this really matters, I'm just being overly analytical. The bottom line is that it rocked. Every last bit of it.

Early on in the show, Alex said something like "As you can probably tell, I'm American. This is our first international headlining show", which was greeted with huge cheers. It's almost as if people could tell that this might be the start of something big…I can't describe it, but that was the vibe I personally got. I don't know how I've managed to be at the first show of their first national tour and their first international headlining gig, but I am NOT going to complain. This particular show consisted mostly of songs from The Guest, which comes out in the UK on May 20th. Remembering setlists is not one of my strong points, but I know for sure that "Always On My Mind", "Lonely Day", "The Guest", "Please Apply Yourself to Me Sweetly", "California", "All Over Again", "Nobody's Fault", "Wishing Well", and the new song that everyone is raving about- "The Happy Ending" -were part of the bill. That order is hopelessly scrambled, by the way.

As usual, Phantom Planet had energy oozing from every pore. Jason, true to form, beat his drums like he was trying to drive them through the floor and his face went through all sorts of entertaining contortions. When you're standing at the edge of the stage watching Jason, it's impossible for the music not to seem overwhelmingly alive. He puts so much into it and is so aware of the songs and what's going on around him, and he's only one fifth of the band. When the others do this as well, it's rather incredible. At one point toward the beginning of the show, at a particularly lively portion of a song, Jason started to rise off his seat with the momentum of his drumming. I was watching him while singing along, and he looked up and saw me singing. A bit later, he was getting even more into it and I snapped a picture of him. He saw this and as soon as I put my camera down, he tossed me a drumstick and grabbed another, without missing a beat. Of course at that moment, my body chose to forget everything it learned in all my years of playing softball and the stick bounced out of my hands, only to be snatched up by one of my more coordinated neighbors. Darn the luck.

I hadn’t seen the band in concert since December, so it was great to see a lot of the songs from The Guest live after finally hearing them on record. I would have given my right earlobe to hear "Turn Smile Shift Repeat", but hey, you can’t have everything now, can you? Let’s see now, I’ll try to describe some highlights. I remember that I grinned incessantly during the whole of "Always On My Mind", so you can imagine both how well it was performed and how comical I looked. "California" was videotaped by some large official-looking man who decided to stand directly in front of me: apparently I had the best spot in the house? It was predictably wonderful and I think it’ll do well as a single over here, judging from the audience reaction. They prefaced "Lonely Day" with a comment that went something like "We haven’t played this one in a long time, so, uh, we don’t quite know how it’s gonna go". Much too modest. I honestly don’t know why they don’t play this one more often, because it’s gone incredibly well every time I’ve seen it. This was a great song to be standing in front of Sam for, since the bass line is so staggeringly cool. My eyes were glued to his bass during that whole bouncy beginning part and he did not disappoint. Sam is one of the quieter stage personalities, but I think that’s because he’s so intent on the show. If you watch him, you see him just getting completely into the songs and generally having a great time. He smiles all the time, sometimes at what the rest of the band is doing and sometimes secretly to himself. Darren is another one who isn’t quite as wild as the others on stage, but again, if you watch him you can see how much he gets lost in the shows. He often has this look of intense concentration, staring earnestly down at his guitar and hammering away at his parts. Another great thing about these two is when they really go wild, you sit up and take notice because it stands out more.

Once again, I was impressed by the tons of interaction among the band. Despite the limited amount of space on the cramped stage, they ran around and played next to each other, leaning on each other, and even for each other: towards the end of "Nobody’s Fault", Alex jumped off the stage, guitar and all. He stood in the middle of the crowd and beamed at the rest of the band completely rocking out on stage, while Jacques quickly ran to the middle mic and resumed the lead vocals for the end of the song. I have a picture of Jacques at this point in the show, singing his heart out. The next picture in my roll is of Alex in the crowd looking at the stage with this tremendously proud expression on his face. Very "awwww"-inducing. I was also amused at the beginning of this song, when Jacques made his little speech about needing crowd participation. Not only did he receive an enthusiastic response, but it was great hearing the usual "how are you doing, Alex?" with a decidedly British tinge.

The new song in the set, "The Happy Ending", left me incredibly excited to hear what kind of direction the band will go in on future albums. I think it is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. Seriously. I love the chunkiness of the guitar parts and how they fit in with the melody line. It also has this brilliant driving beat and contagious energy, which makes it the perfect live song. Try to find it online if you can. If you can get through it without (at the very least) tapping your foot along with the beat, then you should be worried for your health, as you must certainly be unconscious.

"Wishing Well" was another huge standout song, which is really no surprise. At one point during it, the band just stopped. The place was silent. I’m not exaggerating. The audience was so involved in the song that they somehow knew it wasn’t over and didn’t scream to fill up the gap in music. It was eerily intense. Suddenly, Jason screamed out a shattering "3…4…" and they stormed back into the song with even more force. Toward the end they stopped again, and this time the audience did think that the song was over and cheered. The band waited for what seemed like ages and then crashed into the outro, really putting their all into these last few bars and making it sound deliciously twisted. They moved to the throb of the song to the point that it seemed as if they were almost playing in slow motion. I love this song on record, with the beautiful strings and effects, but nothing can beat it live.

When the guys were about three-quarters of the way through the set, I realized that I was supposed to be requesting "Lisa". I shouted for it once or twice and then forgot about it again, since I was so into the show. Finally, according to the setlist that was in our full view, it was time for "All Over Again". The last song. "Oh crap!" I thought, "’Lisa’ has to be now or never!" I started yelling "play ‘Lisa’" as loud as my little voice would permit and finally got a reaction. Sam looked down at me and said "Did I hear that right??? You want us to play ‘Lisa’?" with a surprised expression on his face. I nodded and he said "Hey guys, we have a request for ‘Lisa’ over here!!!" Alex said that they’d love to play it, but unfortunately had a very strict curfew to adhere to. It was cool to even be acknowledged, so that was good enough for me. Then Alex said "Well… we’re actually going to do two more songs" and the place went wild. "One of our very special friends is here and he’s going to come play this one with us. Everybody give it up for Pete Thomas of The Attractions!!!" Pete Thomas, who I hadn’t realized had been standing right next to the stage throughout the entire show, came up and assumed the drumming position. Jason grabbed a tambourine and rushed to the front of the stage, clearly ready to rock. I think it was him (but possibly Alex) who started yelling something to the effect of "COME ON!! Pete Thomas!! You can be louder than that! Let’s hear it!!!" and the crowd happily obliged. They started in on a cover of "Pump It Up" (by Elvis Costello & The Attractions) that inspired me to foolishly grin the entire time, once again. They’re too talented at that, and with Pete there pounding away, I was even more of a goner. This is such a fun song and everyone onstage capitalized on that fact…to say the least. Pete visibly enjoyed himself, played perfectly and made lots of eye contact with the band and the crowd. Alex’s voice sounded fantastic and you could tell he was really getting into it. Jacques thrashed around and let out a couple screams, one of which was directed at the other two thirds of a circle he, Alex and Jason had formed (Not surprisingly, Jason bellowed right back. And yes, I have a photo of it. Classic). And speaking of Jason…oh my. He was in absolute top form, just as he was when he was the "dancer" during "Surrender" at The Hideout way back in December. Never have I seen a tambourine played with such passion. Never have I heard him belt out back-up vocals louder. Never have I seen anyone pump their arms with such vigor. Never have I seen anything even approaching the type of spastic jumps at the microphone that he frequently prefaced his singing attacks with. You get the picture, I hope. My favorite thing about this song was how happy the band looked. It was obvious that they were completely thrilled to be playing with one of their heroes; when they weren’t screaming, they were smiling. At any given moment, three or so of them would be turned around facing Pete as they played, and you got the feeling that it was so they could enjoy every second of it. It was almost as if they were a part of the audience themselves. The real audience, by the way, had smiles as big as the band’s and screamed just as much. As I wrote in the review I did for the message board: Anybody possessing, say, more than two and a half brain cells should have adored it and this crowd was, thankfully, quite a bit more intelligent than that.

Afterwards, Jason headed back to the drums, Pete headed back to the side of the stage and Alex thanked us "for being the best…international audience… ever". A high honor, considering we were, I believe, their fourth international crowd to date, haha. They launched into "All Over Again" and, as I’m sure I’ve written before about some Phantom Planet show or another, all hell broke loose. Unfortunately, my lack of creativity at this ungodly hour is forcing me to use pedestrian clichés. I hope you’ll still get the idea. That is, if anyone is still reading this. I hope they are, because this is the best part! The climax! The grand finale! This song, of course, had immense energy. That pretty much goes without saying, for anyone who’s ever been to or heard about a Phantom Planet gig. The thing is, it’s so hard to describe it in a way that you can actually fathom what it was like being there. I’ll try, though. With lots of adjectives that probably won’t make sense. Forgive me if it sounds stupid. Imagine that you’re surrounded by swirls of colorful flashing lights, a screaming crowd, flailing guitarists, a hopping drummer, outrageously loud chords, howling vocals, and a furious drum beat. Imagine Alex swinging his mic cord around with a look more full of attitude than Liam Gallagher on a bad hair day. Imagine him laying his guitar on the stage, motioning for the girl next to you to make a step with her hands, helping to support his foot when she gets confused, watching him launch himself up to the ceiling and climb across the top of the crowd while dangling from pipes and singing at the top of his lungs. Imagine Jacques jumping and striking rockstar poses before collapsing onto the ground and continuing to play his guitar while writhing around on the floor. Imagine Darren doubled over his guitar, bounding around his area of the stage like he’s standing on a jackhammer. Imagine Sam alternating between concentrating fiercely on his bass and hurling drumsticks at Jason’s cymbals. Imagine Jason pounding out an explosive drum solo while dodging his stool rather than using it and scrunching his eyes shut while his hair flies all over the place. Imagine the incredulous crowd parting as Alex sits on a step in the back of the venue watching the band go absolutely insane and then sprinting back to the stage to join them. Imagine them all smiling. And laughing. And screaming. A lot. Got that? Ok, multiply it by 100. That was "All Over Again".

The song ended and everybody except Jason left the stage. He hovered near the edge of the stage and suddenly darted back to his drums, jumped onto them and pushed them around a bit. The crowd, who was still solidly cheering from when the song ended, went even crazier. Jason walked off stage, looking rather pleased, and the house lights went up. As any concert-goer knows, when the lights go up, the show is over. There won’t be any encores. So when Jason walked out to get something (as the guys often do) a full few minutes later and the crowd began to roar, still very much focused on the stage, it was quite an indication of what an impression Phantom Planet had made. Jason looked absolutely floored and finally put up his hand in the devil horn salute/metal sign/whatever you want to call it (if you’re one of my friends, the "concert girl approval", hehe). The crowd did it right back at him and continued to cheer until he left the stage again. Keep in mind that most of these people didn’t know any of the songs. Most of them hadn’t even heard of Phantom Planet until a few days before. Having that kind of reaction to a band that you’ve loved for three years is one thing; I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like with a band that you’ve loved for approximately fifty minutes.

We hung around the stage afterwards, just talking to people in the crowd and waiting for the band to come out. Some girls were there because they have a friend from LA who loves Phantom Planet and loves Jacques, so she’d convinced all her friends to go. They were really nice and it was cool chatting with them. After awhile, Jason came out and was mobbed by a bunch of people. We hung back, but I caught his eye at one point and mimed applause to let him know that I enjoyed the show. He grinned and nodded thanks, and gestured that he’d come say hi in a minute. When he made his way over, he came up and said "Thanks so much for coming!! Hey, how’s your dad? And your sister?" I told him that they were fine and he said "Yeah, where are they anyway?!?!" and I said Chicago. He laughed and told me to tell them hello from him. I congratulated him on the show and said that I would have gone the night before too, but it was sold out. Much to my horror, he said "Oh, no way! You should have come and found us, we’d have put you on the guest list!" I will definitely remember that NEXT TIME, arrrgh. Haha. Jason had to get going then, because there were many adoring fans waiting to say hello. Sam passed by us next, and I told him that they’d done a great job. He thanked me and said "Hey! You were the one shouting for ‘Lisa’, right? Sorry we couldn’t play it, we had that curfew. If we’d had known that we had a fan in the crowd, we’d have added it!" I assured him that it was no problem and we chatted for another minute, before he was called away. By then Jacques had come out and the girls were talking to him, so we just hung out for a bit. The time came when we had to ask ourselves, "Should we run and try to catch the last train back? Going to sleep….London….going to sleep…London. London!" Finally Jacques came over and opened his mouth, pointed at me and got this look on his face like "WHY do I know who you are?" I said "I’m from Chicago" and he went "THAT’S RIGHT!!!". I told him that my dad goes to a lot of their shows and he said "Yeah, the one with the glasses!". He remembered Claire too, and also told me to tell them hi. Lisa told him that she’d really liked the show and asked if they’d be touring Australia any time soon (she’s from Sydney). He said that he thought they would be and she was pretty excited. She said that she’d only heard of them recently, from me. Jacques patted my arm and said "All right, good job! You’ll be getting commission for that!" Hehe, I do my best.

After that, we saw Alex slip by before we could say hello and hadn’t seen Darren yet, so we just hung around some more. We talked to some really cool guys for awhile, about shows and music and stuff. They had seen Phantom Planet opening for The Vines the night before and liked them a lot, so they decided to check them out again. At one point, I saw Alex standing near the bar, so I went over and told him that the show was great, etc. He shook my hand and said "Thanks for coming, that’s really cool." Then he had to go talk to some "business-type" people, which he didn’t seem too excited about. I went back and talked with the guys some more. The girls we’d spoken to earlier came over and one of them pulled down her shirt a bit to show off where she’d gotten the band to sign her cleavage. One of the guys we were talking to and I raised an eyebrow at each other at the exact same instant, it was quite amusing. Although I would personally rather scald myself with boiling oil than have a band sign my cleavage, she seemed to be a nice enough girl and she was excited about it. Whatever floats your boat, I suppose. Eventually, I saw Darren toward the back of the venue talking to that same group of girls. I didn’t want to interrupt, so we just carried on our conversation with the guys. When I looked over the next time, the girls were leaving so I walked over. He saw me and said "HEY!!" and opened up his hand. "I saved this for you." It was a shiny new red guitar pick with "Phantom Planet" emblazoned across one side. Then he gave me a hug and said "It’s really good to see you! I got your email by the way, so I knew you’d be here. I was watching for you!" (I’d emailed him a few days earlier asking if he could confirm that they were playing with The Vines, but didn’t get a reply). He asked me how long I’d been in England and if I was enjoying it. I asked how he liked it and he said that it was his first time being here and he loved it. Then he stuck his foot in the air, pulled up his pant leg, and ordered me to look at the new shoes he’d bought here. All I remember is that they were black, quite snazzy, and are, according to him, "the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever owned." Nice. I introduced him to Lisa and they chatted for a minute. She told him that she loved the band (he went and put his arm around her) and then that I’d gotten her into them (he came and put his arm around me). He’s a friendly guy, to say the least. After that, I said "Can I ask you a stupid question? Will you sign something for my sister?" and he said of course. As I was taking my pen and everything out of my purse, I said "You remember my sister, righ--" and he fixed me with this incredulous look that shut me up very quickly. It was a classic, "are you completely stupid?" look if I ever saw one. He said, "Yes! AND your dad…" I think that he could tell that I was just now truly believing that he remembered me, so he said, "You didn’t think that I knew who you were, did you?" in this disbelieving voice. I said "Well, you guys meet a ton of people" and he said "Well, yeah, but of course I know you! Come on, I RECOGNIZE you!!" and laughed at me good-naturedly. I was obviously a bit shocked, because I hadn’t seen any of the guys in like four months and this was above and beyond anything I’d expected. But this is becoming a novel, so let’s carry on. I took out what I wanted him to sign for Claire. This happened to be a hilarious-looking postcard cut-out of Prince William’s face (Why? Why not?!?). As soon as Darren saw it, he absolutely cracked up and went "Oh oh, can I ruin his face?" and then ran off to find a marker because a pen apparently wasn’t capable of enough destruction. While he was gone, Alex walked past and Lisa went over and complemented him on the show. She told him that I’d been telling her about them for awhile and when he saw it was me, he gave me a look that seemed to say "Well that makes sense." Darren came back and went to work on the postcard, for quite awhile. When he finally finished it, he carried it over while bowing down and presented it to me as if it was a holy artifact and I was some sort of high priestess. A bizarre sight! We surveyed the damage and it was quite impressive: Prince William now sports a pointy nose, darkened eyebrows, blacked out eyes, and missing teeth. He looks devastatingly sexy, if you ask me. Riiight. (Darren's verdict? "I f-cked him up bad!!" and some gleeful laughter). For some reason that is utterly beyond me, Darren thought that this postcard was tremendously cool and even asked permission (I kid you not) to go show it to somebody across the room. After this display of artistic prowess, he decided that he needed another drink and went to tend to that, saying that he’d come back later. I think he got side-tracked by other people in the crowd, though, so we didn’t end up catching up with him before he left.

After concerts, the Borderline turns into a dance club (hip hop on Wednesdays). Lisa and I watched some really talented breakdancers for the longest time, they were amazing! We were standing there watching them when Sam and Jacques came and stood behind us. I turned around and asked if they’d sign the postcard for Claire, which they nicely agreed to. I talked to Sam a bit about how he liked London and he told me how this club reminded him of places in L.A. because of its cosiness. I told him that I’d seen them a bunch of times in Chicago and he asked if the shows had been at the Metro. When I told him that I’d been to the Hideout ones as well, he said "Oh yeah, The Hideout is like our home away from home!", which was cool to hear. I told him that they needed to play lots of Chicago shows this summer and he said "Hopefully. And we’re going to be back in London in like three weeks too!" They’re playing here again on May 4th. I assured him that we’d be there and wished them a safe trip home (as they were leaving the next morning at some appallingly early hour). They eventually left and the rest of the guys had gone out different doors earlier. When Lisa and I grew tired of watching breakdancing, we also made our exit.

Since we had until 6:30 that morning before we could get the train out of London, we tried to amuse ourselves in various places. We went to this club that played fantastic music (like The Who, The Strokes, Jimi Hendrix, The Hives, Blur. So much fun!) and danced until they closed. Then we spent the remaining hours moving from cafe to cafe, recounting the concert and pumping ourselves full of caffeine. Lisa was incredibly impressed with the band and I was thrilled that she’d enjoyed herself so much. The show was only a little over a week ago and she’s already told a ton of her friends in Australia about Phantom Planet and is ordering both the albums. She couldn’t get over how great the songs were or how well they performed them or how down to earth the guys were: things that I now almost take for granted. I really shouldn’t though, as they still never fail to astound me with their constantly improving musicianship and live show. And the reason that I write about my conversations with the band in such detail (besides the fact that, funnily enough, some people actually like reading them and demand details. haha) is that otherwise I'd probably convince myself that they didn't even happen, since their wonderful treatment of fans is pretty unbelievable. This was an amazing night that I’m very grateful for, as it allowed me to once again see my favorite band explode onto a completely new scene and do a damn fine job of it. I can’t wait to see them again in a few weeks and I expect to see many people from the Borderline show there. I have a feeling that you won’t be able to tell the old fans from the new ones, because we’ll all be just as eager as the next.

Congratulations on making it through this monster of a review! I hope that somewhere in there, you found at least a semblance of a point and a bit of enjoyment. Thanks for reading

Written by Katie