.:8/09/01 slims review by diane:.*.:8/09/01 slims review by diane:.*.:8/09/01 slims review by diane:.*.:8/09/01 slims review by diane:.*.:8/09/01 slims review by diane:.*.:8/09/01 slims review by diane:.*.:8/09/01 slims review by diane:.*.:8/09/01 slims review by diane:.

Slim's, San Francisco
August 09, 2001
Phantom Planet, Minibar, and Matthew Sweet

          30 minutes of Phantom Planet was not enough. Phantom Planet was the one out of the two opening bands for the headlining Matthew Sweet so of course, they got limited time. But 30 minutes?! Come on.
          But my first show was fantastic. If I had to pick a band to perform at my first show/concert then it'd would certainly be Phantom Planet and I am definitely glad that it was. I had bought my ticket online and so had my brother and my best friend Catherine. We all live in San Jose, California which is about a one hour drive from San Francisco. This was the first time Phantom Planet had played an hour away or less from where I live so I was definitely going to go. I was so excited!! God bless my dad for being so damn nice. We got at Slim's at about 7:30pm (doors had opened at 7pm, the show would start at 8pm and Phantom Planet would be the first to perform). When I had bought the ticket online it said "The name Diane Vo will be on the guest list." It wasn't. I freaked. But then it had been some kind of thing that happened and people who had bought tickets online was on another list. Damn those online liars. But we had gotten in so it was all good.
          It was an extremely small club but not many people were there yet. There was a spot right in front of the stage and it was the only spot near the stage that wasn't taken like it was reserved for the three of us. That was awesome. We had gotten in and had gotten good places. A few minutes after me and my brother had gotten some food we were back at our spot at the stage and Catherine noticed a girl and the girl had noticed us. It was Charlotte! Charlotte came up to us and said "Are you..." Catherine replied with "I'm Catherine" and I replied with "I'm Diane." It was Charlotte and her friend Lauren! Charlotte was so relieved to see us because we finally got to meet each other! Charlotte's on online friend that me and Catherine had been talking to for a month or so. She's awesome. We talked for a bit and then the guys came out and started to get ready to play! Charlotte told me that we WILL get to meet Phantom Planet (since she is friends with them). I was so excited!
          Some announcer came on and announced Phantom Planet to the audience. Sam and Jacques had switched places so we were all on Jacques side of the stage. We had a very nice view of Alex and Jacques. Jacques said "Hope you brought your earplugs" and they began with "Lonely Day." It was loud especially when Jacques would do some weird vibratos(sp?) with his guitar and it really pierced my ears. I don't remember what order the songs they played but I know they played "Lonely Day", "Can't Take It", "Recently Distressed", "California", "Shadows", "Wishing Well", "Nobody's Fault", and an amazing, crazy, rockin' "All Over Again." I liked how Alex started out "Nobody's Fault." He said to Jacques..."Jacques, ask me how I am." Jacques: "Alex, how are you?" [Alex fingering with strings and tuning keys] Alex: "Ask me again." Jacques: "Alex, how is everything?" Alex starts out singing..."Everything is okay/Everything is FINE!" That was rad. I don't remember which song but during that song Jacques came all the way to the right of the stage against a wall/pole right on the edge of the stage. My brother backed away because that's where he was standing and Jacques was tapping his foot on my brother's sweater (my brother thought that was awesome and he wanted me to mention that in here). They ended the show with a crazy rockin' "All Over Again." Towards the end of the song, Alex grabbed the microphone and yelled and spit the words out while his body was kneeling towards the ground until he was yelling the words lying on his back. That was totally awesome!!! They hurried off the stage after that and I remember Charlotte had told me that they were in a hurry to get back to L.A. because they have a show the next day and they have to DRIVE back to L.A. from San Francisco.
          We met Charlotte and Lauren near the back stage door hoping we would get to catch them before they left. Dan, the manager, had told Charlotte that they will come out before they leave. Well, I was hoping I would have gotten to meet and talk to them more than I did, but considering that they were in a hurry, I'm okay with what I got. I met Jason first, Charlotte introduced him to me and Catherine. He shook our hands and I asked if I could take a picture. He said "Of course" and while Catherine was taking a picture of us he added "Let's take a fucking picture" (in a happy kind of way not in a growly mean way). But I didn't get a chance to actually talk to him. We saw Jacques and I got a picture with him and he autographed the inside of my jacket! I didn't get to talk to him either but he put "Diane" on my jacket and signed. I'm not sure if it was his signature or something he was trying to write on my jacket. I met Sam afterwards and took a picture but the bad part about this was that I was in the middle of saying "Wait" to Catherine but she had already taken the picture so in the picture with Sam and me, I look like some kind of deranged bunny because my teeth are saying "Wait." Sam signed my jacket too! Then there was Alex. I asked him if he could sign my jacket and he said, "What?" Me: "Can you sign my jacket?" Alex: [making a hand gesture indicating writing] I nodded. He wrote "Phantom Planet Was Here" very slowly on my jacket and then signed. I asked if I could take a picture and he said "Sure." Catherine took a picture and I yelled into his ear (it was very loud in the club) "Your show was awesome!" He smiled, nodded, and gave me a thumbs up and said "What?" I laughed and yelled "Your show was awesome!" and he replied with a "That's what I thought you said!" Then I couldn't talk to him anymore because another group of people went up to him in hopes of getting things autographed. I saw Darren by these bars near the stage and I asked him if I could take a picture and of course he agreed so I was getting ready to stand next to him when he just grabbed me by the shoulders and put his arms around me! I was really shocked at first 'cause I thought it was someone else and then I realized it was him and that made me smile. Me and Catherine got to talking to him about the show. I said "Your show was awesome" and he said "Thanks!" He asked if it was our (me and Catherine's) first PP show and we nodded and he asked "If we do some more shows here, would you come?" We replied with a "Yeah!" Hopefully we would get to go to another PP show in the bay area! Darren asked Catherine if we saw them at the Cactus Club in San Jose (because Catherine mentioned that's where we're from) and she replied with a no. We found out about PP a bit later on! I told him that I was friends with Charlotte and he smiled and said "Oh, really? She's a dork." I laughed 'cause I knew he was joking and then he said "I'm just kidding" like I didn't know he was kidding.
          After a bit, Charlotte and Lauren were going to walk around the club so we hugged and said goodbye in case we didn't see each other again later that night. My dad wasn't going to pick us up until 11:30 so we went outside and watched PP leaving in their van and Alex running up to the van to get in and leave. It was a great night! I was hoping I could've talked to them more, though.
          So in conclusion, Phantom Planet was amazing (both the show/music and the few minutes of yelling to each other), I got to meet Charlotte and she's awesome, and I didn't mention either of this in here but my brother was dissapointed because he didn't get to shake Jason's hand, and the guys are so much more unbelievably hot in real life than in pictures.

-Diane