Historic event: 07/09/1997

One cannot really understand weezer's history without knowing about Mykel and Carli Allan, and what they did for weezer fans. That they were taken from us is a cruel injustice, and it is to their wonderful memories that this page exists.
Mykel and Carli were two sisters who loved two things: rock and roll, and meeting new freinds. They were amongst the very kindest, sweetest, funniest and cool people on earth, and they brought their infectious fun with them when they moved to L.A. in the early 90's. They went to countless local shows and were big supporters of "cool" music, which was just beginning to blossom in the post-hair band dominated L.A. scene. On July 9th 1992 they caught a show by a struggling band who had been doing some pretty rough gigs since February, who went by the name weezer. In the ensuing months, they attended nearly every show the band played, and were hard core supporters of the group. Before long the "weezer camp" and Mykel and Carli were good freinds, and it was common for the girls to bequeath cakes and cookies on the band after a show.
By Spring '93, the prospects for the band were looking pretty good, and when a Geffen Records contract came through, the girls made and gave to the band a great treasure: handmade replicas of the necklace talismans given to KISS in the film "Phantom of the Park", complete with a red velvet lined case! This was a perfect example of the girls wit and attention to detail (photo of this item forthcoming...)
In return, Rivers had by then cooked up a special song in their honor, "Mykel and Carli", which later was professionally recorded and appeared as a b-side on the imported CD single for "Undone".
Once the Blue Album was finished (complete with Mykel's voice in the second verse of "Undone", even), the girls were asked to do the band a favor: would they send out lyrics to people who wrote in requesting them? Rivers wanted the lyrics to be special, just for those who asked. The girls jumped on the project and did a great job. By mid summer '94 the girls had some news: tons of people were requesting to join a fanclub, one that didn't exist! The girls proposed that they start one, and they do it right: very personal, and with lots of goodies. In late '94 the club had become reality, and swiftly passed the 1000 mark in memberships.
By Summer '97, well over 4000 people had signed up, (though not all members renewed every year, so actual membership was around 2500 and growing) Every new member got a new number, so that no numbers were ever "re-used". Mykel was #0001, and Carli was #0002. They spent every available second on the fanclub, even going to such lengths as to call every fanclub member to inform them of an upcoming TV appearence, and sending out a yearly secret suprise gift. They also helped pioneer early net-fandom by making themselves available online to the swelling world of the web, via email and frequent chat room visitation. All in all, they just ruled.
Another of their cool activites was fan gatherings, where they met up with local groups of weezer fans before a show and went and did fun stuff, like going out to eat and whatnot. They did this not only in their LA (and later Portland, OR) homertowns, but "on the road", caravaning with weezer on tour for several days at a stretch. It was on one of these weezer missions that tragedy struck. In the early hours of July 9, 1997 (in fact 5 years to the date from their first weezer show), while en route from Denver, CO, to Salt Lake City, UT, Mykel and Carli along with their wonderful younger sister Trysta went off the road in a one car accident on I-70 near Rifle, CO. All 3 passed away instantly. However, the wreck was hidden from the road, so there was a major mystery as to their well-being and whereabouts all during the next day's show in Salt Lake. Weezer did the show as an uneasy feeling overtook everyone. The band learned the news the next day, enroute to Calgary, Alberta. Through the shock, the band managed to get through the 2 shows in Calgary, knowing that Mykel and Carli would be disappointed if weezer missed the gigs! The Vancouver gig was scrapped and the band flew to Salt Lake to participate in the memorial service, which was beautiful. A local fan Tim attended and reported:
"the memorial service was held at 2:00 pm, July 14th, at the Orem Park 10th ward meeting house of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints, in Orem, Utah. I had the pleasure of attending the memorial and graveside services. Mykel, Carli, and Trysta's father [Wayne] gave an introduction, and eulogies were offered for Mykel, Carli, and Trysta by Claudia (their mother), Kenyan (their brother), and Tyler (their brother), respectively. After the memorial service concluded, we proceeded to Springville, Utah. Several members of the band were among a group of approximately 20 pallbearers. After the graves were dedicated by the girls' paternal grandfather, the crowd mingled, and people gave their love to the girls' family. At the end of the service, before people left, Karl placed 2 special weezer hats, one on Mykel's grave, one on Carli's grave." -Tim
After the Pinkerton Tour was over, there was one last special show on August 15th 1997, a memorial show that was covered by Mtv News. The Allan family was in attendance, to rock out for the girls who couldnt be there, and Rivers did a special acoustic version of "Mykel and Carli" in the encore, somehow getting through it without breaking down. Also playing that night were 2 other L.A. bands that the girls cared a lot about, that dog and Black Market Flowers (who in fact wrote their own "Mykel and Carli" song several weeks before Rivers wrote his!) A special run of t-shirts was made especially for the show, and again, all profits went to the memorial fund, which at the time was cheifly concerned with covering the high funeral expenses. The concert revenue took care of that aspect, and the fund has been growing ever since. There are in fact a small amount of leftover shirts, that you can still order and contribute to the fund while getting a neat limited edition weezer t-shirt. Please scroll down for details on that.
The passing of the girls has come to be recognized as one of the causes for weezer's extended downtime, or at least the start of it. Besides other tensions and stuff that had to be worked out (including Matt's eventual desicion to leave the band), there was a distinct sense in everyone that they just needed time to work out how they felt about all this and what to do next, each on their own for a while. While weezer's future was always considered a reality, it would take many, many months before the band (now with Mikey) were even rehearsing, and over 2 years would go by before more tours and a new album happened in 2000. In the meantime, due to overwhelming demand, Karl (aided by a close freind and ex-roomate of the girls) did his best to continue the fanclub, eventually putting out 4 more issues of the fanclub's "weezine" including #11, the memorial issue featuring extensive input from the Allan family. #14 came out in summer 1999, as karl struggled to keep it going after the assistant resigned in the fall of '98. As the weezer.com duties became more and more pressing (and a great way to connect with the ever more web-savvy fanbase), karl decided to put the fanclub on hold till a viable solution could be found. Currently negotiations are underway with a new fanclub person, who is all about doing it in a way that Mykel and Carli would like. Now that weezer is back in full swing, its good to look back and remember the two people who helped so much in getting weezer off the ground, and who were such wonderful people to boot!
If anyone would like to make a gesture to the girls, a Memorial Fund was set up back in '97 and is still able to take contibutions. The contributions are being placed into a college fund for Mykel and Carli's nephews and nieces. Send contributions to:
Weezer Memorial Fund
10345 W. Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064
...please make checks payable to: weezer memorial fund
In late '97, Vast Records put together the benefit compilation CD "Hear You Me!", which contained the first US release of weezer's "Mykel and Carli", as well as the Black Market Flowers song of the same name, and a ton of rad tracks by such bands as Shufflepuck and Ozma. All Profits from this CD were directed to the memorial fund. The cd is out of print now.
Here's the info on the Memorial Concert T-shirt. 5/31/02 update: all the shirts are now sold. Thanks to all who bought one!!! Any checks that come "too late" will be returned. (if youd like to send $ anyway to contribute, the instructions are above)
in memory of mykel, carli, and trysta, you can place this graphic on your web page, or use as an email/message board signature:
related links:
the letter from karl to the fanclub, August '97
m & c benefit show
rob weber's tribute site
==See also==
*Super-Chrono - 1997
Category:Super-Chrono - July 1997