Karl's Corner - 09/24/2010 (b)

2010/09/24 Columbus, OH: Ohio State U.: South Oval

Well, here we are back in Columbus again! The OSU students decided they had no choice but to demand more weezer, so they set up this show to welcome the OSU folks back to school for the 2010-2011 year as part of their Welcome Week - re-dubbed "Weezer Week". Its a free show outdoors in the South Oval - though as I write this, the rain is pouring down out there! However, all reports say it should be cleared up soon, well before showtime tonight. Opening the show are two local bands, Town Monster and Chelsey Automatic.

(later...)

It took till almost the day of show for us to realize this, but this was a rare event - a totally free show, open not only to OSU students, but also to anyone who wanted to saunter over to the South Oval of OSU to check it out. As it turned out, a HUGE amount of people showed up and filled the Oval as far as the eye could see in every direction! Who knows how many were OSU students, but a large amount had to be as they all seemed to know the OSU chants that were going up at random before and during the show. (What was up with the Buckeye mascot dude getting mauled by that tiger-suit dude yesterday, anyway?)

Our first Columbus show was way back in 1994, opening for The Smithereens with Cindy Lee Berryhill at the Newport Music Hall, on what was our first ever non-west coast show. Its amazing to look back and see all the changes over the years. Its also amazing to realize I remember that show pretty well, and it seems impossible it was already 16 years ago!

Today, many years later, the Weezer machine rolls onward, a bit scarred, a bit dinged up, but overall in pretty good shape! Tonight marked the first time in many many years that Rivers attempted a crowd surf, and possibly his first ever crowd surf all the way across the crowd from the back up to the stage! He made it, albeit minus his in-ear monitor pack and for the first time in my memory, minus his trusty glasses too! Its really a shame that the crowd couldnt resist the urge to snatch them, but thats the way it goes when you leave your fate in the hands (literally) of a massive crowd!

to see these pix individually and larger, click here.
Comment here if you went, or start a thread on our message boards! Tell your tale!

...Weezer has 5 songs featured in the new book The Xfm Top 1000 Songs of All Time, which comes out on Oct 8th on E & T Books. The Xfm Top 1000 songs are based on Xfm listener votes over the years and is available for ordering on the Waterstones website.