Ok… so Phantom Planet at the Vanderbilt was quite an experience… first of all about 30000 bands played that night. There was some god awfulness. I would stand and talk through the set and fall asleep… some really scary stuff. Some Limp Bizkity, some Creedish, some Mighty Might Bosstones… I’m just as frightened as you are.
I should have went ahead and bet Ria on the age of “Indie Boy.” Now if any of you have been to Long Island, you know that it’s a rare occurance to see Indie kids at the Vanderbilt. So there was this gigantically tall kid standing behind us who we dubbed “Indie Boy” because.. well.. he looked it. Tall, skinny, pseudo-mod cut, you get the idea. Now I said that Indie Boy was probably 16 years old. He looked pretty young to me. Ria insisted he was 19. I was like no way- he’s totally 16.. or 17. Definitely 16 or 17. Ria was no way- he’s so tall…I’ll bet you. I hesitated. Ria said “I’ll bet you 10 dollars.” I was like noooooo… I couldn’t afford to lose 10 bucks. But then Ben asked the kid (well actually, I think he was trying to pick him up) and he said he was 16. I rejoyced my superior age gauging.
The Realistics rocked, of course- and the crowd was really into it! I saw loads of people buying shirts and cds after the show. Some people were even screaming “Should’ve Known Better!!!!!” during the set.
Jacques from PP wore a Realistics shirt when they came out. Alex had some weird duct tape on his back. Sam was his cute self… and Jason was there and so was… uh.. the other one… I forget his name… you know, the other one. What’s his name? I don’t know. (EDITOR’S NOTE: It’s Darren).
The little girls in the front seemed to enjoy it, so I was happy for them. One of them liked it so much they threw their black bra on to the stage- Jacques picked it up and handed it to Alex, who hung it on the drum kit. I do have to say it was pretty cool seeing Alex crowd surf. Everyone just held him up like he was the Messiah. It looked dope. Then at the end Jason tried to be all rock by trashing his drum kit- very similar to a stunt I saw last weekend- but it was sort of pathetic. At once point he tried kicking the kit and embarrasingly missed completely. Then he just kicked stuff around ….when that ceased to impress everyone he just jumped around like a maniac, trying to hype up the crowd. I laughed my ASS off. It was hysterical.
The kids seemed to like it, which I thought was cool. All these 14, 15, 16 year old girls screaming and jumping in unison, it was really adorable. What’s that line Rufus Wainwright says about it being like your surrounded by little Ewoks? It’s just like that. They’re all so happy and young and jumping up and down together. And they really LOVE Phantom Planet. It was really endearing.
They all waited after (if you bought a CD you got to meet the band). The 15-year-old girl behind me ran up to me with a pass and said, “Do you want it?” I’m like what is it? She’s like a pass to see them, I don’t know if they’ll let us both in. I wanted to hug them all. I just saw the line and said, “Awww…” then I went home. Heartwarming night was had by all. Those kids were so sweet. No one screamed in my ear, no one pushed me too hard. It was very cute.
