Time to write about this show before I forget too much. It was Wednesday at UT's
Frank Erwin center. I loved it, and it has left me with a feeling of wanting to get back into music performance. I hope that feeling doesn't go away too quickly.
Both bands played one long set each. Weezer was the band that I really wanted to see and were first up. I got the feeling that there were more Foo fans there than Weezer as the crowd on the floor didn't seem to be moving much for the majority of the set. I, sitting in the lower nosebleeds, cursed them at one point. Dance! Move! If *I* were down there, I'd be going crazy! Oh how I wished I had bought my tickets sooner. When I bought them the floor tickets were sold out. While I am starting to have "old guy" concerns of not wanting to stand up for hours, or being packed in like sardines, both of those didn't seem to be an issue on the floor. I would say only a third of the floor space was taken up, so one could always escape the crowd, and probably could've even sat down in the back without having to worry about getting stepped on.
I only own Weezer's first album, so I'm quite familiar with it, and have probably 5-10 mp3s from their other albums. So I wasn't sure I'd recognize many songs. But I was surprised to find they played a lot of songs off that first album (which is now 11 years old), even the non-hits. Of course they had "Buddy Holly" "Undone" and "Say It Ain't So" but they also played "My Name is Jonas" "No One Else" and "In the Garage".. and maybe something I'm forgetting. But geez that's six songs, they might have played more off of this album than their new one! Well I might as well count and see... "Beverly Hills" "This is Such a Pity" "Perfect Situation" "We Are All On Drugs" "Peace"... that's all I remember for sure, so I might be right. Well, while I'm at it I might as well list the other songs I remember: "Photograph" "Hash Pipe" "Island in the Sun" "Why Bother?" "The Good Life" "El Scorcho" ... they must've played something off of Maladroit but I'm not familiar with the songs on that album. I suppose the only thing they didn't play that I wanted to hear was "Pink Triangle" since we've had fun performing that one (if only for ourselves).
Today I went out and bought two more of their albums (thus how I am able to recall the setlist), their new one, Make Believe, and their second one, Pinkerton. I rarely buy CDs now. I suppose the last I bought was a Joe Jackson compilation probably a year ago, and thought that maybe my days of buying CDs were over, perhaps in favor of buying singles off the net. So I guess I surprised myself. There is still something to be said for having something you can physically hold on to when buying music, and you get the whole thing delievered as intended. What I mean by that is you get all the songs on the disc, in the order that someone decided to put them in. I think I'm more inclined now than ever to listen to a CD from beginning to end rather than shuffle it. I don't know what that means--maybe to form a better connection with the artist.
Back to the show--interesting things about the Weezer set:
"Island in the Sun" played solo, acoustic, and on a raised platform near the mixing station.
Long unrecognizable intro to "Buddy Holly"
Picked someone out of the audience to play guitar on "Undone" - I found myself thinking "wow, that's a tricky little riff for a beginner." What they meant was the acoustic chords instead, a G/Am/Bm/Am thing (tuned down a half step). Of course, they smartly muted that guitar during the modulated part. But they also at one point had just that guy, drums, and vocals going (no lead guitar or bass). It was fun and came off well.
I guess this will need a part two. You have probably realized already that I really, really enjoyed the show.
Labels: music
