It's 11 p.m., and Plankeye has just finished a show
in St. Petersburg, Florida. Eric Balmer, the band's
soft-spoken, giant guitarist returns my phone call.
His observations of the past several months reveal a
band that is coming to grips with the fact that life
at times can be a bumpy ride.
On the surface, it would seem Balmer and company
have it all together. "The concert we just played
was awesome!" he says. "The band was rockin',
the crowd was into it. The whole place was movin' and
groovin'!"
Plankeye was once hailed by True Tunes News as
"the Altar Boys of the '90s," with songs
that Youthworker Journal noted "rage with solid,
meaty guitar sounds, a collage of topics, and
deeper-than-normal lyrics." A review of the
band's debut album Commonwealth, suggested that in a
perfect world, Plankeye "would be the next Tooth
& Nail band to reach the [general market]."
Media accolades, an opening set on last year's
"Take Me to Your Leader" tour with the
Newsboys, a much anticipated new album--yes, to the
casual observer Plankeye appears to have it all
together, enjoying the best of times.
Reality hits, though, like a double-edged sword. In
its success, the band must also learn to deal with
disappointment.
Of the recent "One and Only Rock 'n' Roll
Paradise" fall tour, Balmer says it was
"...probably the roughest we've ever been on in
all respects--mentally, spiritually, physically. We
had a lot of things happen to us during the first
three weeks that were just disastrous. We had planned
the tour to coincide with the release of our new
record, The One and Only, but the record got postponed
so we had to alter our show and ended up touring old
material. We also had a circumstance where the cops
confiscated our trailer. And then there was a time
when the trailer hitch just snapped in half in the
middle of the road. It's this big, huge 20 ft.
trailer, and it just smashed into a wall. Praise God
it didn't hit a car, and no one got hurt!"
The disappointment goes still deeper. "We were
coming off of touring with Newsboys, playing to crowds
of 2,000 to 5,000 people a night," adds Balmer of
the 110-city "Take Me to Your Leader" tour.
"It was a humbling experience to go back to
playing for 200 to 500 people again. I think we had
higher expectations, and in a lot of ways our
expectations were not satisfied. It forced us to
continue to trust God and be thankful for what He has
given us."
Despite the challenges and the smaller crowds,
Balmer and fellow Plankeye members Adam Ferry (drums),
Luis Garcia (bass) and Scott Silletta (vocals) prefer
to headline their own tours rather than open for other
bands. They say it's more fun to play to a home team
crowd than to try to win over another band's devoted
following.
You also don't have to worry about being the object
of good-natured, but disgusting, practical jokes.
Newsboys' Peter Furler relished the opportunity to
have a little fun with his new friends on the tour's
last day. "We were in Boston," Furler
recalls, "and on the last day you always play
jokes on the other band. We went down to the fish
market and bought some fish heads and buried them in
the snow until after the show. Then we put them behind
the seats on [Plankeye's] bus. We ended up telling
Plankeye where they were because they were going
absolutely nuts about the stink! Besides that they
were polluting the whole of Boston with the
smell."
While the Newsboys' tour exposed the Southern
California foursome to over 300,000 new fans, Plankeye
was to weather even more road troubles.
"We were driving through Kansas one
night," Balmer recalls. "The roads were iced
over, and the truck slid off the road and down an
embankment and was sitting at a tilt. I put on my
jacket and my beanie and jumped out of the truck and
went about waist deep in snow! We spent the next half
hour running in place to keep from freezing while we
tried to CB for help. Finally, we ran about a mile
back to a gas station. The police had to put up a road
block so they could tow the truck out.
"For us [the tour] was a both a positive and a
negative experience," Balmer reflects. "But
then all of life is made up of blessings and curses.
We learned a lot on the road, and in retrospect we
realize there are a lot of things we could have done
differently. But all in all, it was a great
experience. We really admire Newsboys. They are great
people."
Though it might be easy to dwell on the hard times,
Balmer is also quick to acknowledge the good things
that are happening for the band. "We are really
excited about the new record!" he says. "I
think we stretched ourselves. We tried to go out on a
limb, to be progressive and not necessarily follow
trends. We tried to experiment with some new stuff,
and I think that shines through.
"It is always dangerous to say what sets you
apart," continues Balmer, "because it can
sound arrogant or prideful, and there is none of that
in my answer. But I would say that we are a band that
is very progressive in the sense that from record to
record we have really grown. It is that growth and
maturity in our music that is encouraging to me. And
we don't try to mimic anybody. Obviously there are
influences from a whole host of places, but I think we
have successfully created our own sound, and I am
really proud of that."
While Plankeye started out six years ago as just
another Christian punk band, its music has continually
evolved, pushing steadily toward a more
popularly-accepted, alternative pop-rock sound. Beyond
the musical evolution, though, is the band's
increasingly profound lyrics. Balmer says each of
Plankeye's members have more fully embraced the
Reformed mode of Christian thought, and a lot of the
record reflects that paradigm shift toward salvation
by grace and not works. "The One and Only is more
thematic than Commonwealth," Balmer says.
"It is more upbeat, and it integrates the change
in our thinking."
Pointing to the song "Fall Down" as an
example, Balmer says, "There were some
circumstances in my life that just made me feel so
stupid and ashamed. I was sitting in my bedroom when
the chorus came to me, and I found myself screaming at
the top of my lungs: 'This mire is too often my
heart's desire/Pick me up/Dust me off once again.' I'm
just glad none of my roommates were in the house at
the time."
Plankeye's latest project, The One and Only, is
finally out, and the band is eager to test the new
project on the road this spring. But while the buzz is
strong and the reviews are positive, Balmer refuses to
speculate on the band's future. He prefers to leave
that to "God's sovereign and almighty hand."