If my memory serves me correctly, there was no Arizona date scheduled for this tour, so we hatched a plan that involved half-a-dozen teenagers road-tripping in two cars and an airplane over 4 days, from Phoenix to San Francisco - by way of Las Vegas. It was the first time I had traveled out of state without my parents and, boy, was it one for the books.
- Bloody sheets. There was this horrifying phenomena that followed us from our first night in Las Vegas to our final night in a sketchy middle-of-nowhere motel in Wesley, California - there were blood spatters on the sheets in every room in which we stayed. Eventually we realized that I had a cut on my elbow which had had a difficult time healing, apparently, and that the blood was in fact leaking from my own body - not sure whether that's less gross or more gross.
- Sidewalk singalong. My friends and I arrived in San Francisco the morning of the concert and did some sightseeing (which isn't really sightseeing when it's left up to a bunch of 17-year-old boys). We grew bored of it pretty early and decided our time would be most well-spent sitting in line for the show for six hours with an acoustic guitar as we triumphantly led the people who weren't too cool for us in a Weezer-themed singalong. We very possibly may have covered the whole discography.
- My first love. Due to singing all the best Weezer songs with all the best Weezer fans on the streets of San Francisco my inhibitions were not only thrown to the wind, they might as well have been locked up in Alcatraz across the way. This allowed me to both meet and continue talking to a girl. She had come from Seattle with her friends for the show, and they came and joined our singalong. I'm pretty sure she stuck around because we had a sweet place in line, but sparks flew, emotions ran high, she touched my leg, and the rest is history. I became a lovestruck high school junior (quite a worthless thing to be, turns out) and we became pen pals and it was like really cute and stuff.
- Dopplegangers. Do you ever see dopplegangers of your friends, but with different thematic variations? Like seriously, have you ever seen a Native American Joe Pesci?* Well, we had a few of these on this trip, most notably: Gay Bearded Ed Linton and Fat Myke With Biker Shorts.
- Use of the word "word". On road trips, it's pretty standard practice for kids to form inside jokes or memes. And, let's face it, they're usually induced by driving delirium. We, as a group, inexplicably began to use the word "word" to agree with things said by others. Now, this is only really noteworthy because of the fact that I still perpetuate the use of "word" as a substitution for "yes" to this very day. Embarrassing? Maybe. Immature? Definitely. But come on, "Word to your mother" sounds so much cooler than, "Tell your mother I say hello."
- Distributing porn to children This isn't what you think. You've been to Las Vegas, right? If not, I dare you - nay, I defy you - to try getting through a Sin City visit without at least accidentally seeing the image of a naked woman. There is really no avoiding it. Unless you go to Vegas without walking down the strip, which doesn't officially count as going to Vegas anyways. Well, I was handed all kinds of porn-laden fliers and brochures all night long, and I suppose I was just too nice to say no? Towards the end of the night, my breast pocket was overflowing with nudity - and not the good kind. So, in an attempt to rid myself of all this filth (as well as all the guilt I felt for having it), I ditched my stack-o-porn in an elevator. It wasn't until I got out of the elevator and began walking around that I realized - it was the elevator inside FAO Schwartz, the world-famous toy store. When the elevator came back up, I looked in and the porn was gone. I may or may not have converted a future sex offender. Only time will tell.
W = M + 3b(90)The problem with the theorem is that is presents an unsolvable paradox. Where W is Weezer, M is Matt Sharp (whose presence is necessary to achieve greatness) and 3b represents the other band members, multiplied by the effects of the 90s. Since time has moved permanently beyond the 90s, I am afraid that Weezer returning to their former awesomeness is simply a mathematic impossibility.
*bonus points for naming the movie reference
4 comments:
Man, that was such a fun trip. Easily one of the best concert experiences of my life.
And I'm glad you pointed out that Matt's absence isn't the only thing that has kept Weezer from regaining their past glory. I feel like so many have argued that Matt staying with the band would have made the difference. Somewhere along the line -- it's actually happened several times -- Weezer has become a different band and I highly doubt that Matt could've single-handedly prevented that from happening.
I think it was the five years of doing nothing between Pinkerton and the Green album that killed Weezer. But then, who knows, because maybe it took five years for Pinkerton to marinate and a new release before the Green album in 2001 would've distracted fans from Pinkerton's greatest (or maybe if would've solidified it like the Green album did).
As you can probably tell, I've spent many a sleepless night wondering where Weezer went wrong and what they could've done to have escaped their fate today.
Awesome post.
Yeah, I kind of view Pinkerton as parallel to Mozart's requiem in the movie Amadeus.. it was the piece that was SO good, it killed them to write it, and then left its greatest admirers in an insane asylum in its wake.
And yes, I just compared Weezer to Mozart.
Your post was good. I agree with your assessment of Weezer present, past and future... But I really just wanted to comment on your comment and say that Amadeus is easily one of my favorite movies ever. Beautiful.
loved this post, my favorite yet.
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