Karl's Corner - 10/24/2009

2009/10/24 Los Angeles, CA: The Hollywood Palladium

**Special Note to NYC fans who want to try to get into Letterman when weezer is there! the show tapings are MONDAY 10/26 and THURSDAY 10/29. the Monday taping will air Friday, while Thursday = Thursday.

Weezer's NEW VIDEO for "(If you're wondering if I want you to), I want you to", exclusively on Babelgum.com!

...Tonight was one for the history books, as Weezer and Wax shared the stage for the first time in 16 years. Weezer and Wax came up in L.A. at about the same time, but Wax barreled out of the gate, securing a loyal fanbase immediately with their high energy shows and great vibe, while Weezer thrashed about getting its act together, fighting for an audience and swimming against the tide of the LA club scene, which at the time was still mostly leftover Sunset Strip glam metal weirdness and jammed out funkiness. Weezer and Wax shared a lot of history before the two bands even existed, sharing members in prior bands, and so everybody was rooting for each other to do well. Wax became the band to beat, and Weezer took real inspiration from their showmanship and work ethic. When Wax got signed in '92, it was a milestone, the first band we personally knew to do this - proving it was possible.

Fast forward a few years and Weezer had followed suit, starting the long saga that continues today. Meanwhile Wax put out 2 fine albums and had an Mtv hit with their "Southern California" video by Spike Jonze - the infamous "man on fire" video. But about a year after that, Wax seemed to have had their plug pulled and they stopped touring.

Fast forward many more years, and we know what happened to Weezer. But meanwhile the members of Wax had gone on to do a bunch of various things. Joe Sib was in 22 Jacks and then became a SoCal radio personality. Dave "Burdie Cutlass" Georgeff started the sweet rock band Sign Of The Fox which is still going today. Tom "Soda" Gardocki has helmed several great bands including Soda and His Million Piece Band. And Loomis found himself an indispensable member of the Jackass family - whose founding member Johnny Knoxville - or P.J. Clapp The Knoxville Strongarm as we all knew him back in '93 - came up and introduced Wax tonight. 2009 has brought a long awaited Wax reunion, and happily a Weezer/Wax show again at long last. A lot has changed, but its great to know some things can still be experienced, pretty much as they once were. (ok, so theres a trampoline and Chamillionaire, but its still Weezer, dammit!)

Yes, I said Chamillionaire, of "Ridin Dirty" fame, who came out during "Can't Stop Partying" and laid down some wicked rapping of his own, making a unique version of the song instead of copying Lil' Waynes part from the album version. This was a reprisal of his efforts at the recent AOL Sessions, but as those havent been aired yet, it was technically the world wide debut of Weezer with Chamillionaire. It was a sight to see!

Also reprising her guest role from Kimmel and AOL was Sara Bareilles, who did the duet thing with Rivers on "(If you're wondering if i want you to), i want you to", to great effect both sonically and visually.

The whole show was kind of magical - theres something about the Palladium - it does have some bad spots acoustically, even post renovations, but the vibe of the room is just stellar for a great rock show - which in this writer's opinion, it was.

...first some Wax pix: