Karl's Corner - 05/19/2002

Japan World Cup Tour show #3: Club Zepp, Fukuoka
...Today we took a (strangely nearly empty) flight on a 747 from Tokyo to Fukuoka, about 900 miles to the south, and proceeded over to the club after about 1 hour of chill time at the hotel. Todays show was in yet another Zepp club, another small theater/large club style hall. This one was adjacent to a mall that contained a crazy arcade, roving bands of weezer fans, and all sorts of colorful weird things. Fukuoka, or at least this part of Fukuoka, seems very much like a sort of suburban tourist area. From the plane we spotted lots of beaches, and the atmosphere seems geared towards recreation. Of course there are massive areas designed for shopping, which seems to be a basic requirement for any Japanese population center. Another suprise setlist tonight kept people guessing and stoked, with Brian's "Yellow Camaro" making another appearence, and "El Scorcho" doing a fine job as encore. Also, "Space Rock" saw its live debut (I think), and sounded rad to me. 
......the first 7 Fukuoka fans' stories...
*"...How do you do. I went to the show of today's Fukuoka. Although the show of weezer is seen 3 times and cooked until now, whenever it may carry out, it is excited in wonderful show. My dream is going for the son who becomes in 1 years-old six months to grow up, and to see weezer show together! I want to also show the son the wonderfulness of weezer early. If it becomes 5 years old, can it go? The small body will be swayed and danced if the song of weezer is still told. Moreover, it is waiting for the show in Fukuoka to pleasure early also for one day." ---Ryou.I
*"...Today my friend Makiko and I went to Zepp Fukuoka!! I couldn't sleep well yesterday. I got up at 7 and listened to all WEEZER's CDs. Karl, did you wear orange T-shirt today? When I was in front of HMV store, I saw a man and I thought it might be Karl, but I wasn't sure that man was you, so I couldn't call out to you. [...it was me - k.] When the show started and when we saw WEEZER, all the audience shouted for joy , it was so big!! The most impressive thing was that all of us could sing and felt the same mood,music, and feelings. Even new songs of maladroit, we remember the words and sang together. It was so pleasant time! The song "Don't Let go", "Simple Pages" and "No one else", I didn't think that Weezer play that so I was really glad to hear that. I had so great time today and I got to love them more and more!!" ---Saori N.
*"...Showed up at Hawks Town (a mall connected to the Zepp) at about 1 and walked around the place trying to catch a glimpse of a Weezer member, but it was to no avail. I did manage to see a few guys from AM radio though, along with a couple staff workers from the tour (I recognized them from their pictures on the site). Anyway, I decided to go and check out what the zepp was like, only to find that they were passing out tickets for assigned blocks of the floor in which you would have to stand. My ticket was for Block E, which sucked because it was towards the back. So after entering the place and getting my sh**** spot in Block E (which really wasn't all that sh**** because the Zepp is TINY), I watched AM Radio perform. I have to say, I think they've been underrated by a lot of other people who've written fan reports. I think it's easy to overlook them when they're followed up by a band like Weezer, but compared to most other bands I've heard lately, they were fantastic. I would definitely go see them again even if they weren't being followed up by Weezer. If This Was the End of the World especially caught my attention, along with Hush. The set ended pretty quickly it seemed, and the lights came back on again so everyone could go and buy alcohol before weezer came out. That's when I noticed that Block D was less than half full, and Block C wasn't nearly full either. I wasn't about to sit with a bunch of lazy head-bobbers for the Weezer show when there was plenty of spots open that were much closer to the stage. So I moved into Block D. Then Block C. Then I nudged my way to Block B. And by the time The Good Life was over, I was 3 people back from the stage, in the center. And that's not bad, considering I was a head taller than all the little japanese kids in front of me and had no trouble seeing. It got pretty crazy where I was standing, though I don't know about all the kids in block B, c, d, e and f, because, well, I didn't look back. Since I had read the reports from first show in Japan and heard it wasn't very raucus, I was surprised about all the crowd surfing tonight. A nice surprise. Rivers greeted everyone with a "Good Morning", apparently he's still used to some U.S. time zone. After The Good Life, Mr. Cuomo said "I just wanna go back. I just wanna go back to the good life, where men are men." Soon after that we were treated to Space Rock, which did in fact rock, and when it was finished, Rivers pointed to the crowd and said "uso tsuki! uso tsuki! " (you lie! you lie!), and "warui ko!" (bad kids!). I wonder if he has ever studied Japanese. A lot of kids were requesting Hash Pipe, which they got later on in the show. At one point, someone yelled out "We wanna rock!" to which Scott replied "And yer gonna get it!" I completely forgot when and the specifics, but there one part when Rivers said "Thank you Japanese kids... and you americans... anyone from Senegal (I THINK he said senegal)? Well, this one goes out to everyone in Senegal who couldn't make it here tonight." El Scorcho was the encore and it, like the rest of the show, was amazing. I'm sure a lot of people will be going to work or school tomorrow without their voices, and lots of pimples because we were all sweating A LOT. After the show I managed to snag a setlist (go me), and I left a very happy Weezer fan. The AM Radio guys were hanging out outside right after the show, and I waited around for a bit to see if Weezer would come out, but there was no such luck. Sitting against the wall, a saw a guy from AM Radio passing (I can't remember his name right now, stupid me)and told him "nice show." just expecting him to say thanks and walk by, but he stood next to me and just talked for 5 minutes or so about getting lost when he was in Roppongi and how he really likes Japan, among other things. What a nice guy." ---Kebin
*"...words cannot speak unless they are told. you can never know the excitement i owned when i saw the weezers. i had so good good SO GOOD GOOD time. i like when mr. pat drum. he is very good american drum man. maybe next show i bring mom to show her american rock not so bad. weezer have make my life feel like nicely. the crowd cheer so loud and i know that was best memory i own. big =w= light and my eye open big. i never see =w= so big before!!! it was best!!!!! i thank the weezer for best night. tell the rivers i say "konichiwa" :o)" ---skl
*"...Hello! I really enjoyed the show in Fukuoka. I was in the most crowded area near the center of stage, at first. And I was squashed a few times and pushed from the center to the side automatically....Especially at the songs from the first and second albums, the people including me were more excited! I was most exited and felt happy when I sang loudly "no one else"!!! with everybody at there. And I was also happy to see Brian singing. And Rivers was talking more in Japanese than last year I saw the show in Tokyo, I thought. He said "a liar" in Japanese several times looking so happy. The encore was also exciting, we sang "el scorcho" all together. At the ending,listening noise of guitar Rivers(?)made , I felt sad but happy.: ---Kyoko.S
*"...Hi! The show was so amazing! My husband and I drove 3 hours from Nagasaki to see Weezer last night at Zepp Fukuoka and it was well worth it. What we saw of am radio was really cool they were really tight. I took a picture of the lead singer after the show. cool! Weezer weezer weezer. The set was great; we heard new and old and even "so happy together", which Rivers sang with the words in front of him on a music stand. We jumped and danced and sang and, oh man, did we sweat. We were in the very back and I wish that we had done like that guy did and crept forward...Damn. Next time I guess. The energy was so great even though alot of people couldn't understand what was being said. Hopefully not too many people understood Rivers saying "Don't let the door hit your ass!". That was hilarious. We knew the show was over then. My husband is a true Weezer fan; he went through the whole show jumping up and down with a severely sprained ankle! Long live Weezer!" ---Allyson in Nagasaki
*"...I came from small south island (in the sun?) named Okinawa.And it was first time for me to go and see WEEZER's show.WEEZER was supposed to come to there 2 years ago (with GREEN DAY and BEN FOLDS FIVE),but it was canceled because of big typhoon!!Oh no! So I decided to go to Fukuoka to KICK OFF. I was waiting and thinking "How can I go to bathroom?"at 9:00 AM. Am I so stupid?Because nobodies line up!! I thought WEEZER's fans who living in Kyusyu are very easy going. But it was not. When the show start,every audience was excited SING SING SING , JUMP JUMP JUMP,PUSH PUSH PUSH!!! Now I 'm sure they might be save them energy(?). Then lot's of people had remembered the new albums lyrics already and they were singing as much as they can with Rivers. not only WEEZER's songs but also AM RADIO's"time after time"( Sorry I forgot the song title,but they were so good!! I am glad to hear that them CD will be released this year.) I couldn't breathe almost 20seconds when they were singing "hush pipe" and "why bother?"but I could enjoy the show!! Backache,necktie and bruises in my body are good memories,too. Thank you for the greatest show!! And see you soon." ---Yosh 
Category:Karl's Corner - May 2002