Gig 20030401 Journal

Source: Shihad.com (circa 03)

Date Published: 1/4/03

Who: Tonto

Where: Salt Lake City, UT, USA

When: 1 April 2003

Reviewed by: Tonto

Well. All I can say is WOW!!! All my American friend can say is WOW!!! Pacifier have yet again proved that they are the most rocking band on the planet.

The night started off pretty rough, but it got a LOT better. The show with Trust Company and Fingertight was cancelled due to the Trust Co. singer being sick. I was pretty gutted, cos I was really really looking forward to seeing the boys. Instead of sitting around and home counting my losses, I decided to head out to Club Xscape anyway, to see what would go down, and boy am I glad I was crazy enough to do that.

When we got there, there was a sign on the door saying how the show was cancelled and blablabla, and in the corner someone had scribbled “All kiwis go to the dead goat around the corner”, so I followed the sign, hoping it would lead to something. I was wearing a pacifier shirt, and carrying a jar of marmite (my present to the band). There was a whole gang of kiwis in there, and as soon as they saw me in my pacifier shirt they were all yahooing and stuff, and it got even worse when they saw my marmite. I got chatting to a few kiwi guys in there, and after a few minutes one of the guys from the bar came up to me and asked me for I.D. I didn’t have any on me, so I got kicked out. L I went back around the corner and up on the street to where the buses were parked.

I sat outside club Xscape and the Trust Co. bus, hoping that something would happen. After an our or so of sitting around, one of the Trust Co. band guys had come back from dinner and was about to hop on the bus. I asked him if he knew anything about the whereabouts of the boys, and he pointed me in the direction of a sushi restaurant around the corner. Lo and behold, Karl was sitting at the back table, and had just finished eating. He came out, said hi, yada yada etc. etc, we chatted for a little bit, then he invited me and my yank friend Mike to go hang out on the tour bus. J It’s a very nice bus, although I wouldn’t want to live on it for 2 months, which the boys have been doing. I gave them their marmite, and they loved it, especially Tom, he was digging into it. We hung out on the bus for at least half an hour, maybe an hour, and basically did nothing, waiting for something to happen. Then they got the word that the Dead Goat wanted them to play, and the manager even came out himself and arranged something with them.

Yay.

They started shifting gear over to the bar (I carried Phils guitar, my mate carried Karls bass) and then we waited for the other people to get off stage. It was kind of an open-blues night, where anyone who played can just hop up on stage and jam away. Was pretty entertaining, but I just couldn’t wait for Pacifier to come on. Finally the blues dudes got off stage and Pacifier started setting up. It was a real minimalistic styles thing, Tom used the drums that were already on stage, and the other guys just had one guitar each + a couple of amps.

Once everything was sorted, one of the guys on their crew (tour manager? Roadie? I dunno?) hopped up on stage and they got ready to play.

They played a LOT of ACDC. Bout 4-5 songs, some of them not complete, but near enough. It was great to see them just mucking around on stage jamming on some ACDC, and it sounded great. The crew/roadie/manager guy was pretty good. J After 4-5 songs and a bit of a muckaround jammy kinda thing, they got into some Shihad material. Heres what they played of their own stuff…

Home Again La La Land You Again

3 songs. May not sound that great, I know, but with the 4-5 ACDC songs before them, it was great. The crowd was very VERY small, but packed with very homesick and enthusiastic New Zealanders, and although it kinda didn’t have the groove of a usual NZ crowd back home, it was still all good.

This very small and very short show is the most enjoyable Pacifier show I’ve been to. The guys, once again, are great. I mean, what other badass rock bands remember ur name when they see you? Or invites you onto their bus to hang out? Or gives you free stuff (I got a pacifier pick and an album sampler cd) I have no idea, but im guessing very few of them would be as friendly as these guys. And also the fact that they still put on a show for the few dedicated kiwis who waited a few hours in some dark and dingy bar, even though im SURE they didn’t get paid a lot to do so, makes them legendary in my view.

Major thumbs up guys, you rock. Really. You do.

That was my 5th Pacifier show in a year. I think im doing pretty well. J Hope to see you guys again soon back in NZ in the (not too distant) future.

PS: Mike, my American mate says hes gonna buy ur album first chance he gets. J and erm, Tom, who was that hip hop rapper dude u said he should look up?

NOW I JUST GOTTA GO GET MY PHOTOS DEVELOPED!!! YEEEHAAA!!!