The entire experience from start to finish of going to see Weezer and the Foo Fighters was entirely unique. And that says a lot considering how many shows I’ve been to.
First of all, it was the first concert that I refused to buy tickets in advance for due to the crazy ticketmaster fees and thinking that with the size of the venue and amount of tickets being scalped on craigslist it wouldn’t be too hard to get our hands on tickets the night of. Well, we wanted GA tickets and ended up getting seats because a scalper told us that the numbers on the tickets were floor seats and he lied. Like scalpers have a conscience, but what an ass.
So the seats weren’t terrible, but we were a little bummed. But when Weezer came on playing My Name is Jonas it was all forgiven. I listened to the Blue Album so much in my ‘formative’ years and it had so much of an affect on my life, it was just too cool to see them live. Plus, they are the only band I know of that wrote a love song for a ‘Jamie’, so that holds a special place in my heart. Rivers Cuomo informed us that this was the last show of the tour, so that was why it was a little different. He commented that he doesn’t know when or if they’ll ever tour together again, which gave the set so much more meaning.
So, knowing a little about Dave Grohl, I know that he is a big prankster. Well, during the Weezer encore, Rivers came to a mini stage at the back of the GA area and played an acoustic version of Island in the Sun…che bella. And as he started to play, this partially dressed chick gets up on the platform with him and starts gogo dancing behind him as he plays. It was too funny. But it proceeded to get funnier as Weezer pulled a guy out of the audience who said he could play Undone..The Sweater Song on stage with them. I was all agasp at first thinking this must be the most awesome moment ever for that kid, but then realized that he was wearing a hoodie all mysterious-like, and then at the end when he smashed his guitar it was apparent as he revealed that it was Dave Grohl. But the biggest laugh I’ve had at a concert up to this point ever happened during the last song they played, Buddy Holly. As they played six beefcake guys came out on the platform on the stage and proceeded to strip during the song. They had W-E-E-Z-E-R painted on their chests. And they stripped down to fringed g-strings. That was two strippers in slightly over one week for Jamie (the other was my friend Jen’s bachelorette party - but you’ll have to email me for those pictures). Dave Grohl - A++ for pranks on Weezer.
The Foo set was great, though it didn’t have as much of an effect on me as the Weezer set. I like Dave Grohl due to his previous membership in Nirvana, and was thrilled that he played the drums for one song. But his voice is a true wailer. I was astounded to get rock ear from seats towards the back. The songs sound much more hard core live than recorded, which isn’t bad, but it was giving me a headache. I think I’m officially getting old.
After the show, we had an interesting train experience as thousands of people getting out of the stadium to catch the train at one time is a little scary. The train back to the city had people passed out on the floor and all. Now that’s tired if you’re willing to sleep on the floor of the train.
