Karl's Corner - 08/10/2002

Enlightenment Tour Day 36 [LAST DAY!]: Concord, CA: Chronicle Pavilion 
Main Stage: Sparta, Dashboard Confessional, Weezer
Second Stage: The Special Goodness, Rooney, Home Town Hero, Am Radio
Well, the Enlightenment Tour came to this, the last show, high up in the dry hills somewhere in the East San Francisco Bay area. Patrick continually referred to this as "Concord grape country", not actually knowing if the town's name had anything to do with grapes. A huge "W" was trampled or scorched high up on a hillside overlooking the venue. The work of fans? aliens? No one was sure. What was sure was that the thermometer read 105 degrees, a high that mercifully lowered as the sun went down. Also sure was the triumph of rock tonight! All the bands, The Special Goodness, Rooney, Home Town Hero, AM Radio, Sparta, Dashboard Confessional and Weezer kicked out the jams tonight! After the smoke cleared and the feedback faded, it was time for the final aftershow party, which was an emotional goodbye as the bands, crews and staff all parted ways. A portion of the weez crew and the band will be continuing on in a few days as the Japan/UK/Europe dates commence, but for now we said goodbye to the most excellent bandmembers and crewmembers of all the bands who now part ways. The Enlightenment Tour was a bonafide success and sets the tone and precident for future weez tours: Fun, loud, big, and chock full of quality music. MASSIVE thanks to all the bands, crew, local staff across the country, and especially YOU the fans for helping make the Enlightenment Tour the great sucess it was. Hats off. 
"Weezer World Cup" Foosball Challenge #14: San Francisco- Live 105/KCNL
Foosball Challenge #14! Last Challenge! Today before the show there was the final fan vs. weez foosball challenge. In many cities on the Enlightenment Tour, the local radio station chose winning fans who got to come backstage before the show and challenge the band to a mini-foosball tournament! There were usually 6 winners per show, and they divide up into 3 teams who face off vs weezer for one game each.
Todays match results:
Round 1: Team Weezer (Cuomo/Bell) V. The Hooligans (Navi Tumber and Camellia Asgarian) : Winner: Team Weezer. Score: 10-3. [The firey Hooligans came ready to rumble, in soccer regalia and attitude to match. The no-spinning rule worried them but they quickly adapted and were a force to be reckoned with]
Round 2: Team Weezer (Cuomo/Bell) V. Smith and Jones (Jennifer Stoddard and Andrea Stoddard) : Winner: Team Weezer. Score: 10-1. [Smith and Jones FA were inexperienced but worked hard to adapt and learn, were rewarded with a goal versus tight-fisted goalie Bell]
Round 3: Team Weezer (Cuomo/Bell) V. Flying Death Skulls From Above (Joe Salas and Blair O'Malley) : Winner: Team Weezer. Score: 10-1. [a far more intense battle than the score reflected, the Skulls had some foos skills but simply werent able to capitalize.]
...pic #25, L to R: hellageeky, queasy duff, Páez, spongebobsquarepants, Stacey=), [?], Rivers, vivianrocks... 
...the first batch of Concord fans' show tales that came in...
*"...Hey Karl! I just got home from the last Weezer concert in Concord, CA and it was THE GREATEST! We started the night off watching The Special Goodness and they were pretty great... then next up was Rooney and they rocked hardcore! We met Scott while they were playing and he was incredibly nice. Then we went to the main stage and watched a bit of Sparta. We met some pretty cool kids and then Dashboard was up and they were pretty radical. Weezer was of course up next and they WERE THE BEST EVER!! Yeeeah!! Rivers seemed pretty loose and I loved when Pat took over the guitar and Rivers stood on the drum set. I was stoked for that show and now I'm a little sad it's over, but it was GREAT and I can't wait for the next tour!!" ---Shelly (pinkweezerton)
*"...Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww what a great show... that wass sooooooooo amazing. THis was the best weezer performance ever!!! Rivers said some hilarious things and preached some bible things.,...i think. Amazing set they played. Almost all the pinkerton songs! The good life...el scorcho wow! Pat did a great Van Halen style solo at the very end. Great show guys!!!" ---SSS
*"...Goddamn, Weezer rocked the ******* house tonight. The setlist was awesome- starting and ending the show with fierce energy. The Special Goodness also kicked 'el taco', who knew Pat could rock out so hard on a guitar...a satisfying jam session indeed. And despite some rather, to say the least, obnoxious drunk people sitting in front of me and blocking my view of Brian, I couldn't have asked for a better concert. Thanks Karl, Rivers, Scott, Pat, Brian, and the sound guys, I can die happy now. "Sometimes you just have to just pick up an axe" -RC " ---=mimi= (AquaPeache on .com boards)
*"...I just walked into my hotel room in concord,Reno NV being my origin, and i wanted to tell you how badass the show was tonight, my best friend and i went to both tonights show, and the show in nashville. Both shows rocked pretty hard, but tonight served the rock up in a massive portion! We started off checking out some Special Goodness, which dominated the side stage, then we checked out some Rooney, which also rocked hard, and happened to bump into Scott, who is a totally rad guy.....The we headed over to the main stage and caught the tail end of Sparta, they too sounded pretty good. Then Dashboard hit the stage and definitely got the crowd going, then, WEEZER HIT THE STAGE! it was total euphoria! they booted out a healthy mix of new and old, it was a perfect was to end a kickass tour.....i cant wait to see you all the next time around" ---Tyler- (weezer4lyfe on the boards)
*"...Woah, got there, saw pat, he signed my ticket (thanks btw pat), scott walked through the crowd to get to the stage...TSG ROCKS...Sparta was...loud...Dashboard was not bad, he had the crowd going...nice set list! no one else, no other one, why bother, el scorcho, the good life, simple pages, 20 minute (or so it seemed) verion of only in dreams...wow...thanks for not going to the Shoreline!...come back to concord soon! can i suggest "Ash" as an openner for the next tour? thanks!" ---roy (snapdragonslovetoy)
*"...only one word can really descripe the show tonight, and thats rockatastic! maybe it was the setlist, or the pyro, or the tons of .commers i met, or the fact that i met scott and u and atom, and scott told me he would marry me, but none the less, tonight was the best weezer show ever, and ive been to 9! i was totally blown away. from the ass**** sitting next to me, to the cute couple on the other side, the to whiny emo kids behind me, it was all great! thanks so much" ---=sarah=(curlyhare1)
*"...Well, I am speachless. I can easily say that it was the sweetest concert i have ever seen. I have seen weezer three times this year: Extended Midget, Dusty West and Enlightenment.... this was unbelievable. Not to mention I saw the Special Goodness which kicked ass. Then I met Pat.... wow....what can I say... the coolest guy ever. It made my trip from Seattle to L.A. well worth it's while. I can't really comprehend how cool Rivers was, I have never seen him so crazy. He was hilarious, he was calling everyone his children and brother and sisters. hahaha. Pat and Scott started bickering on stage, it was great. Pat also brought back memories while telling us the story about how they named El Scorcho. To coment on Brian Bell.........very good very cool and all together godlike. I brought along my friends parents who are now the geezer weezer fans, it was great they loved it!! basically (no fact) weezer rules the world... period...." ---~Ben Grant
*"...The show was my fourth show but is number two. Not because it was bad--but, SF will always be the best. SPARTA BROUGHT THE ROCK! [didnt like Dashboard]--and the WEEZ BROUGHT THE HOUSE DOWN. I'm so glad I went. I had lawn tickets but the security was pretty bad so I snuck into the seats. My friend and I danced the ******* night away. Karl, I tell ya, Weezer is never gonna get old for me. I was a little disappointed in no riser for pat's drums. But, it didn't matter the show rocked. And Scott messing around with the pedals reminded me of a Radiohead show I saw last summer. Sparta and Weezer....So damn good." ---A.P. Brown
*"...Well, I have mixed feelings about tonight's show. Sparta was good, and I really enjoyed Dashboard - but Weezer shows have always been about the crowd coming together, singing geek rock anthems in unison such as Jonas and Surfwax. Due to the fact that the Weez has become so popular of late, the 15,000+ [actually, closer to 10k -k] crowd was drawn to the Chronicle Pavilion mostly by Green and Maladroit, which left many clueless when it came to belting out (and rawking out to) the classics of Blue and Pink, which comprised the majority of the setlist. Weezer came to rawk, and it showed, especially in Rivers' (drunken?) attempts to rally the crowd into singing along. =w='s musicality was of the highest quality I have yet to see in a live performance. Unfortunately, the crowd was decidedly lackluster and took much away from the concert as a whole. (This is a bit of an ironic twist on the Yahoo Outloud tour of early 2001, when I would say that the energies of crowd and band were reversed from those observed tonight.) All in all, a good show, but one in which I sometimes found myself alone when flashing the =w= and busting out old-school choruses." ---Shefik
*"...Who the heck started the concord grapes thing? The concert has left me in total awe and deafness. The pyro was kickin'! Oh and Karl, before Special Goodness was starting out,, you had a piece of grass in your hair. Thought i'd let you know after 4 hours. Hash Pipe was a great opener. I was a little, okay a smidge, disappointed that Only in Dreams came so early in the setlist. And where was the confetti? but i guess Paper Airplanes are better, in a way. I'm still in total shock! I had really great seats for the show. The people next to us were really nice but the party poopers in front of us, oh they were NOT nice. If i only could remember what came after the Good Life, i'd be happier. The songs all kicked ass. The story about El Scorcho, if i could remember all of it, was hilarious. i'm done." ---emily (weezindork)
*"...Just came back from the weezer show in Concord, wow that was an awesome show, I kept running back from first stage to second stage, surprisingly I saw every band (well I kinda chose not to see Dashboard for too long). All the side bands were great, especially Rooney and Home Town Hero, the bands pulled pranks on each other since it was the last show. Sparta was good as usual, well what can I say about Dashboard? not too much, and weezer came on, they didnt really play the set list I wanted but it was close enough, I sang along to every song, the highlights were definately El Scorcho and Say it Aint So, everyone was singing along to those songs. The band really poured out their hearts and soul into this show, I was very pleased with their performance." ---RS
*"...i just came back from the weezer show in concord and omg the show was absolutley awesome! even though it was my first it for sure will not be my last. rivers was so funny and so cute in his little suit. i would like to thank them for all the great stuff they've accomplished and the great music they make that please my ears. dashboard was good (maybe cuz chris is just too hot) and sparta was interesting. anyways all those pinkerton songs were just rad. thanks again, and please come back next year!!!! weez on!" ---~T.Lee 
Category:Karl's Corner - August 2002