Karl's Corner - 08/18/2002

08/18/02 reading, writing, 'rithmatic, are the pages of a learning tree

touring: Osaka: Summersonic Festival show #2 of 2

...Today started out pretty crispy as we had to get up at 5:30 AM to fly down to Osaka. We checked in and caught catnaps before venturing out for a breif time in Osaka, which for some of us was spent entirely in search of and patronizing the fine dining establishment that is Mos Burger. later we cruised down the freeway to the Osaka World Trade Center area, where they hold the Osaka SummerSonic in this big fenced off open area at the foot of the WTC skyscraper we call "the Transformer", because it looks like a giant robot at night.

Today had the additional challenge added of Typhoon #13, which was making its presence known with wild winds and rain most of the day and evening. The weather and the traditional communication gap between English and Japanese speaking people working the stage combined with several delays throughout the course of the day made things pretty intense by the time weezer's gear was being set up. But the weez crew lived up to the test and kicked some ass for the band today, dialing everything in under very stressful conditions.

The Osaka crowd was LOUD and had the happy fury of a soaked crowd who were rocking out and just didn't care. Everything turned out to be pretty darn epic tonight, and everyone in the band reported having a great show. It felt really heroic to me. Then we got the treat of watching Guns N Roses play for the second time in 2 days, this time from the side of the stage. If anything they were even tighter, leaner and meaner than yesterday. Good jam.

...a fan's point of view...

• "...the festival was awesome, weezer was definitely the highlight of the 2nd day in osaka!! for real the hour that weezer played was one of the best times for me this summer! i went totally crazy that i still dont have my voice back from singing and screaming. rivers looked hella happy; was funny he sang the japanese number song and talked some funny japanese. at the end he went up on the drum set and made an "x" with the drum sticks which i thought was funny if it was a joke about the old japanese band X. anyway thanks weezer for an awesome evening; the fest couldn't have been any better without you guys! cant wait till weezer's back in osaka again." ---yuko