Karl's Corner - 11/30/2000

...today we (and KROQ listeners) learned that weezer will indeed be playing BOTH nights of the "KROQ Acoustic Christmas" shows, at the Universal Ampitheatre in LA, December 16th and 17th. These shows are packed with bands, each playing fairly short (but sweet) sets. Other bands include (on the 16th...) No Doubt, Papa Roach, Moby, The Deftones, Incubus, Coldplay, Fuel, At The Drive In, and 3 doors down. On the 17th, the other bands will be No Doubt, Papa Roach, Moby, Deftones, Incubus, Linkin Park, Green Day, Disturbed, and Everclear.

...Also playing in the L.A. area in December is this really neat band, "Goat Punishment", that we think are worth checking out. They will be playing at Spaceland in Silverlake on the 14th, and at Hollywood's Knitting Factory on the 30th.

...Some people have written saying that their weezer Yahoo tour ticket is a "plain" ticket, and doesnt look "commemorative" or special at all. I checked into this and found out that 3 shows on the tour (Austin, Columbia MO, and San Francisco) had to go through non-Ticketmaster agencies for some reason, and are therefore issuing "regular" looking tickets. Yahoo apologized for the confusion, and assured weezer that people at these 3 shows who bought their tickets early online will have it made up to them in the form of an *additional* gift or prize (on top of the one every "hard core fan" will be getting for having the early tickets), to be issued at the show itself. I guess online ticket holders for those 3 shows should make sure they bring some sort of proof that their ticket was an "early online" one, like a dated receipt, to ensure they get whats coming to them! Again, the Outloud Yahoo site (link above) should contain much more info on this and other stuff, as we get closer to the tour...

...With the recent increase in weezer's activity and these "high-profile" shows, weve gotten a number of comments and concerned e-mails from people saying weezer is "selling out"...a good example came in the other day, and I decided to post the e-mail "conversation" we had, to let everyone know weezer's position...

"....weezer has been my favorite band since 8th grade...im now
almost 20 and its very saddening to me the way you guys are marketing yourselves....the
Yahoo tour is so unnecessary, and playing with Blink-182 on new year's eve
shows that you guys only now care about making money and being popular and
not catering to your true fans who have defended the shit out of you guys for
the last 3 years when you werent around...you guys dont have to be on the
radio or sell millions of records to be succesful....you have already done
that..stick to your own promoted tours and shows and try to stay out of the
mainstream...trust me...who likes Blink-182 now...a bunch of 14 yr old girls
who dont know what punk music is really about...Blink-182 are the epitomy of
sell outs...and playing with them kinda makes me lose respect for you
guys...as i have with Blink who used to be one of my favorite bands as
well...trust me, you guys are going to lose your true fan base if you keep
making it obvious you want to be in the mainstream...its a turn off to true
music fans."

letters like that one raise a good point, but I feel that they assume too much. To try and clear the air, I responded as follows...

"Dont worry, my friend, you wont see weezer on TRL
or the cover of Rolling Stone anytime soon, Rivers is just as shy of all
that stuff as ever.

As regards to the Blink184 show: whether or not they (Blink) are sell-outs, we (or
Rivers at least) simply like their tunes, and its sounds to us like its
going to be amazingly fun (we havent had a chance to play a big arena show
in a long time!)

The Yahoo tour, as far as we can tell, is going to be just a plain old
weezer tour. They've given us complete control over the tour, we're picking
the opening act and dictating how the shows are going down.

If weezer becomes really successful again, it will be on their own terms, as
it's always been."