Karl's Corner - 10/03/2005

...MB '05 Tour: Day 106: Foozer/Wee Fighters 11: Chicago (Rosemont), IL - Allstate Arena
Chi-town! Or rather, a suburb near the airport therof. More specifically, the Allstate Arena is like, 20 feet from Chicago O'Hare airport, as evidenced by the jet airliners passing directly over the arena about every 2 minutes (at an altitude of only about 200 feet) on their way to land. The jets' roars were really loud even inside the arena, but sure enough, they blended right in with the rock music coming thru the PA. Meanwhile the White Sox are kicking butt, and the locals at the nearby Target store (where 'Make Believe' was on their bestselling cd display, a local demonstration of the album's continued strength some 20 weeks after release - #53 last week, UP from #59!) are thrilled. In other news, overly long sentences are still an issue over on weezer.com.
Today weezer got some new set pieces for the stage, a taller drum riser plus metal stairs and platforms so the guys can walk right up to Pat's world and rock out in new ways. The stuff looks great, but an element of chaos is always introduced when you toss in a new technical feature mid-stream. The crew had to make some adjustments on the fly, but as they are the best on the road, they pulled it off. The band worked hard at tightening up their set, and coming up with clever transitions between various songs, to smooth out what was becoming a sort of unruly situation at times. I'd say the hard work is paying off for everyone.
More infrequently heard songs crept into the set tonight, as the suprises keep popping up here and there. Tonights audience was loud but overall mellower than the last few nights. Perhaps there was a "you surf, you leave" rule in effect or something, as surfing was pretty much non existant. Tonights 'Undone' voulenteer (see fan reaction below) was wild, channeling the spirit of Kip Winger! This was a guy who must have been in a few bands, or really put his "bedroom rock" time in, cuz he was pulling some serious shapes and getting big air! Plus he could totally play the part great and even slipped in some lyrics to the '94 demo song "Blast Off!" during the beginning verse parts. That might be the first time those lyrics were ever heard on a live weezer stage...
Backstage after the weez set, the Foo's Dave G. suddently started BLASTING Motorhead and other uber-metal songs in a special room off the Foo's dressing room, for a pre-show psyche up. 'Louder than god' would be an apt description of the volume happening as we gathered in the hall in bemused amazement. Just then Taylor H. walks up nods at the 'noise room' and says: "Yeah, I...uh... I never go in there". Its a lot of fun being on the road with these guys. This is probably the most fun tour for weezer ever, giving the '01 "Extended Midget Tour" with Tenacious D. a serious run for its money.
Big ups to Anuj B., OG 'RWA' webmaster, in the hizzouse tonight!
fan reaction! (more in the comment section, add your own)
"...What a show. Easily the best =w= outing I've seen. More than worth the flight to Chicago. Now I don't know if it was completely random [it was! -k.], but nothing beats the thrill of playing guitar onstage with the weez for 10000+ people. Huge thanks boys for letting me play undone with you last night in Chicago. Truly the greatest experience of my life. It still amazes me that you guys allow yourself to connect to your fans that much and make dreams come true like that. Seriously, thanks so much for everything and I hope I wasn't too rowdy for you, but I definetly had a blast. (off). p.s. - thanks for the guitar!" ---Bret P.
Large size picture link: .
The (updated 9/8/05).
Note: - do not buy them if you see them!
NEW: These pictures were not part of the original post. They were provided exclusively for Weezerpedia by Karl Koch.
[click on any photo for a larger size version]
Category:Karl's Corner - October 2005
2005/10/03