Karl's Corner - 09/17/2001

9/17/01 keep on rocking in the free world

...Salt Lake City! The crowd response at this little shindig was amazing! The roar was so loud when the lights went down, and the "jumping up and down" was large-scale and impressive. It looked like everyone in the whole arena was standing up for the encore too!

...today marked 2 cool reunions of sorts, stemming from the fact that there are some Salt Lake weezer ties. Number one was that Brian's sister came and paid us a visit backstage. Number two was a major part of the Allan family (Mykel and Carli's family) came to join us in the rock celebration. It was wonderful to see everyone again!

...early in the weezer set, a huge rush of people in the assigned seating sections rushed the floor to try and join those who were in the standing section. This looked really scary, as people were getting pushed and shoved, and running down the stairs at top speed in the dark is NOT safe. A lot of folks did make it to the floor, but it is a miracle that no one was seriously hurt. At least I didn't hear anything about injuries, but it wouldnt have suprised me if someone had been trampled. Anyway, it didnt look like a very cool way to go about it, and I would strongly recommend against this kind of tomfoolery at future shows...I was seriously scared for people. Security guards came up to the various access points and eventually staunched the flow of people, but by the end of the night the crowd on the floor was a lot fuller than when it started. I'm glad they got to rock out where they wanted to, but

...tonight seemed to be the night of bras and panties being tossed up on stage from the audience. At one point both Brian and Rivers had several lacy underthings hanging from their nightstands. And the mysterious age-old tradition of rock continues!

...I met and talked with some of the guys in Cold today, and they were really nice people! We discussed the fact that they are not getting the warmest welcome from the weezer fans so far on this tour. Interestingly, they mentioned how that when they were opening up for Marilyn Manson earlier this year, they had an even harder time, due to the Manson fans being utterly devoted only to M.M. to the point of (literally) trying to cast evil spells on Cold! We kicked around the idea that some weezer fans are indeed open to different styles of music, but many are finding Cold beyond their "range" of taste, and choose to use the concert as the place to defend their taste. We also discussed how it was in fact Rivers who invited them out, as he digs some of their songs a lot. I guess we've opened a new can of worms on this one. I just hope that the fans at our shows at least show some courtesy, even if they arent willing to give Cold a chance.

...and in case you were sleeping, theres a new video treat for you over in the audio video section, and Dan has a pile of new news items up on the RWA news page (link at top right, next to my banner)