Karl's Corner - 06/06/2001

**reminder - mtv vma weezer appearance tonight! more nyc virgin picture links here**
Today's "Hooptie" show was at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square, New York City. The rock was loud and the crowd was stoked, as it should be. Today's set included 2 of the brand new songs that had their public debut at the St. Louis show a few weeks ago: "Burnt Jamb", the pseudo insturmental, and "Keep Fishin'", with its steady chugging verses and "doo-wah" choruses.
Not everything ran totally smoothly, however. There was a sudden big moment of confusion as the autograph line was being organized after the performance. The Virgin store security started forcing people to leave who didnt have the green album with them! They claimed that the "rules" were that whoever had originally bought the 1st 250 albums (which got them into this show) were supposed to bring that actual album back to be signed, and nothing else. ....HUH? As this came to light and kids started yelling from upstairs that they were kicked out, The band immediately demanded that this stupidity stop and those people be brought back. Our Geffen connection rounded up a bunch of the kids and brought them back downstairs, and I also ran around looking for upset stragglers, "rescuing" one happy dude. The virgin "policy" was immediatley ignored by the band, who signed anything the people brought up. The folks who were almost booted out got to go to the front of the autograph line.
Later, I found out why the Virgin staff had gotten so uptight. Apparently someone had made a bunch of counterfeit passes to get in, and so Virgin had let in more people to the show than they expected. Once they uncovered that some people had "sneaked in", they decided that the only way that fans could prove that they were actual winners was if they had the green album. This of course made no sense, as someone who bought one of the 1st 250 copies at the store back on May 15 could easily have decided to bring something else to get signed. Fortunately, we seemed to have nipped that little disater in the bud. Counterfeiting passes is wrong, but its more wrong to boot out people!
However, I also have learned that some people left the store, angry and sad, before we could round them back up and get them downstairs. Virgin Megastore Times Square is a HUGE store, and there were a TON of people upstairs, so it was very hard to tell who was "stuck" up there and who just didnt have a ticket. A few people have written to me explaining their poor treatment by Virgin and their lost opportunity to meet the band, and on the band's behalf I apologize, and say shame on the Megastore for being so dumb as to ruin the experience for some of the winners (those upset people who wrote all expressed a promise to never shop at Virgin again, and I can't say I blame them...)
...in other news, weezer has parted ways with their management company, and are currently doing a good deal of extra work on the road because of it. So if you see a weezer member with a far off look in his eye, its probably because he's got a lot on his mind these days. I'm not sure if this situation is permanent or temporary, but so far we are doing okay. 
Category:Karl's Corner - June 2001