Entry by : Patricia M.
=W= Show Experience: First show (too young during the mid-nineties when they first toured and 2002 tour sold out too quickly )
        Photos by Patricia
I had arrived around 4pm to line up for tickets seeing as the pre-sale and actual sale sold out almost instantaneously. When I got to the Commodore I met a lovely girl named Laura. She had a weezer cake that celebrated the tour and the new album, Make Believe. Steve, the lead singer/guitarist of openers Ringside came out front in an effort to get into the venue. When this failed, he spoke to the group of us that was now from two people to four. He's an extremely nice guy. Eventually Laura gave the cake to the House of Blues guy, Chris, who took it into the black hole that is the back alley. I wonder if anyone ate it?
Since I had no ticket and was horrendously early for the show, I hesitantly bought my ticket from scalper for $55— first and last time— because the chances of getting into a sold out Commodore show are never that good. Later on I met some more lovely people from the area as well as two offline weezer street teamers from Washington. A funny thing happened as I went to get a falafel shortly before the show: I passed Brian Bell as he was leaving the alley. I froze. I smiled. I rapidly walked away. [A bit daft, I know. I couldn't find the bloody falafel place on top of that.]
Some time later the doors opened and the show opened with Ringside. They were incredibly energetic for seemingly dreamy rock. Their songs were riddled with gut-wrenching emotion and bitingly sweet. Eventually weezer come on to face an absolutely mad crowd. "Holy crap," I said. Half my life leading up to this moment was weezer-concert-less. True to form, each member came alive like über-stylish rock gods. They definitely "brought the rock." Upon hearing those first diffused notes to "Tired of Sex" the crowd went insane and I could certainly feel it. Arriving at a venue at 4pm assures one first spot in line, thus a front and centre spot for the show. I can't quite describe the immense unity and energy of a concert crowd at a weezer show to anyone that has not experienced it themselves. It was good times through sheer volume. They played some songs off of Make Believe to resounding enthusiasm. The tracks are really, really good. It brings back the excitement of the first album I ever purchased for myself, weezer's Blue Album.
At any rate, the show was pretty much everything I had hoped for. Down to every song, which I know was somewhat different as I hear the weez don't often do a lot of Pinkerton material. Aside from my arms still hurting from being between a metal barricade and someone's man-parts [it was more than mildly creepy], the show has left me in Full Weezer Mode. Can't wait until 10 May! A purist, I refuse to listen to any of it until the disc is in my hands. |
