Entry by : Colin Medley
=W= Show Experience: First show
      Photos by Colin Medley
First off, this was my first weezer concert. I was supposed to go in 2002 but I had to go on a family vacation. I mean, it was a good vacation, but I would have rather gone to the concert. Anyway, when I
heard that they were coming back to Toronto, I knew I had to go, and that nothing would stop me. Well... ticketmaster found a way.
I was on the website the day tickets were going on sale. I was on
the website well before 10 am, which was when I'd be able to buy them. Unfortunately, once 10 am rolled around, the ticketmaster website decided to crash.. Yeah, thanks a lot. So there I am, stuck without a ticket. The phone rings, I pick up. It's my friend. He got me a ticket. He'd made the smart move of waiting in line at the ticketmaster outlet. My goodness was I happy. So it would be me and three of my friends going to the concert. We made all the proper arrangements during the weeks leading up to the concert. A few days before the concert, my friends and I decided we we're going to skip school and line up as early as possible for the show.
So Friday morning, we made our way down to the train station, only to miss the train by literally 2 seconds. So there we were, stuck in Oshawa. It was just an hour wait until the next train, but that meant
we would be an hour late for lining up. Needless to say, we made it to the Kool Haus (the venue) at around 1:00 pm. When we arrived there, only about 20 other people were already lined up. We learned
several people at the front of the line had slept there overnight! We quickly started talking to other fans, and soon a singalong began when two kids busted out their guitars. We got hungry after awhile so two
of my friends walked over to the Loblaws (a giant grocery store) that was just behind the venue and bought some chips and water for us, as well as a deck of cards. This helped pass the time.
A tour bus pulled up next to our line. We were all hoping it might be weezer's, but it turned out to be Ringside's, which was still cool. So we met them, and one of us asked them what Rivers was like. To
our surprise, they said they hadn't really met him even, but that the rest of weezer were really cool. Soon a big "jam van" pulled up as well and started blasting weezer tunes, among others. On one trip to
Loblaws, we were on our way back when we caught a bit of weezer's soundcheck. It was Brian singing "Getchoo". This made me so excited for the concert!
On another trip back from Loblaws (we waited seven hours, so we did have to use the washroom several times) a van pulled up near us, and I told me friend, "Imagine if that's weezer, haha!" And.. I was right! Well, Brian, Scott and Karl emerged. Unfortunately by the time we turned around to see that it was in fact really weezer, we were some distance away and there was a lot of security around. So I just
called Scott's named an snapped a few photos of them from far away. Creepy, I know, but that is the way of the weezer fan. So we got back in line and enjoyed some cookies and brownies offered to us by other
weezer fans. I remember meeting some girls who had flown in all the way from New York for the show. Everyone I met in line was really cool, that's one thing I remember.
Anyway, at around 7:45, Karl showed up with his camcorder and videotaped the crowd a little bit, and then he stopped to talk. I got his autograph, got my picture taken with him, and gave him a present.
Some kids behind me asked him to tell weezer to play El Scorcho, when I jokingly said "No, Possibilities!" Karl laughed, and then the line started to move. Some people actually tried to run ahead of us but the security people yelled at them. We were a little worried that they would take our cameras, so we hid them at the bottom of our backpack. We got inside, and I headed to the merch table. My friends and I were the first people there, and we each got a different shirt. I'm really happy with the merchandise on this tour. We stuffed theshirts into my friends bag and then checked it.
We quickly found our way to the front of the stage, about three rows back. Ringside eventually came on and played for half and hour. I enjoyed some of their songs, but of course I was there for weezer so I
was a little impatient. They came on about half and hour after Ringside ended. Let me just say, it was so unexpected. One moment we saw some of weezer's roadies settin' things up, next thing I know
they're on the stage. As soon as the first note of "Tired of Sex" was played, the crowd went insane. And I'm being serious. Everyone just pushed to the front and lots of people fell down. I just let myself go with the flow, but after three songs I was getting tired of the pushing, so I moved back a bit to where it wasn't so crowded. I could not believe how sweaty I got in such a short amount of time.
    
Anyway, after "Tired of Sex", it was "In the Garage", and I was very happy to see Brian play the harmonica on that one. "No One Else" was next, and I am so glad they played it since it is one of the best weezer songs in my opinion. "This Is Such A Pity" was played next, a new song. I'd heard a short clip of it on the internet, and my goodness, I had no idea it was this epic. Brian on the keyboard, and their guitar tech Bobby playing guitar, it was just.. explosive! "Buddy Holly" was fantastic of course. They started to play "Photograph", then abruptly stopped while the crowd continued to sing it. Rivers seemed to get a kick out of it. Luckily they played the whole song afterwards. "Hold Me' was played next. I remember hearing a demo of it a few years ago, but I never thought they would keep it and that I would hear it live! It was really sweet and one of the calmer moments of the night crowd-wise. Then they got into "Getchoo", with Brian
singing of course. Rivers mostly stayed at the back during the song, which I thought was nice, I mean, to let Brian have the spotlight for a few minutes. Hearing "Say It Ain't So" next just made me shiver almost. It is my favourite weezer song and I mean, there is nothing like hearing it live. Another new song, "We Are All On Drugs" was next in line. Sure enough, many people were tokin' up during the concert. It's a fun song for sure, can't wait to hear it again. "Island In The Sun" was great to hear live as well. During "My Name Is Jonas", this was when they crowd got really insane again. A big moshpit formed near where I was standing. Lots of crowdsurfing occurred of course. Another beautiful new song, "Peace", was then played, followed by "Beverly Hills", to which everyone already knew the words. After it was done, I remember Rivers saying, "Speakin' of rock," before going into "Hash Pipe". They closed their set with "Haunt You Every Day". I don't remember much about this song, I think I was really dead at that point. They left the stage, only to reemerge a few minutes later with the 1-2 punch of "Undone" and "The Good Life". They all left the stage, but not before Pat grabbed a guitar and got some feedback going. The
giant W faded and we knew it was time to go. |
