Back to the city of lights out in the Nevada desert, where a few months ago it was the scene for one of the bigger shows in weezer's career, the 100th Birthday bash for Vegas with the Chili Peppers. This time, its a much more intimate gig at "The Joint" to round out the 'Make Believe' 2005 USA touring schedule. Deep in the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, the gear was loaded in and the dressing rooms stocked with water and some snacks, for the last time in what looks to be a long time for the US - though only about 6 weeks for Japan. We were staying in the Hard Rock Hotel upstairs, so getting to the gig only involved some "Employee Only" access.
The surreal town o' Vegas holds many secrets, but the ones we learned about today were the back employee-only hallways that you dont see while out in the casino or chowing down in the Hard Rock Cafe. This is the second casino type show this year, the first being at Atlantic City's Borgata, and the backstage vibe is the same - basically lots of foodservice dudes pushing big carts around, and mysterious people with photo badges walking around looking worried.
Actually, this is the second time weezer has played "The Joint". The first time was the very first show ever at the Joint, when they opened the casino on March 10, 1995. Back then it was an all star show that was partially televised, featuring a bunch of bands including Weezer, Duran Duran, and an amazing performance by Al Green, who was riding high from his fresh exposure on the soundtrack to "Pulp Fiction". Today its the same place, over 10 years later, and its aged pretty well.
The Vegas crowd was a combo of super stoked young fans and a swath of semi-touristy types, people from out of town taking in the show because its there and they are looking for fun. Any show in a casino has got to expect such a mix, and the net effect was a happy crowd who werent moshing for the most part, but were definitely pretty loud. Today's "Undone" acoustic helper/guitar winner was Morganne, who later confessed to being a total beginner on guitar, but sorta had us fooled as she was actually hitting the chords for the most part, and making the rest up with her charm.
The Vegas crowd got a Halloween treat tonight, with the band coming out in costumes for the encore. Pat was done up in a Roman toga (hail Caesar?), Brian had a mysterious scarlet wizards hood on and kinda looked like he was in early 70's Yes or Genesis (Stonehenge! where the demons dwell...), Scott was done up as a caveman and regaled the crowd during the opening of Undone with such Cro-Magnon classics as "Me like tree. me fall in lake." And Rivers emerged as the escaped convict in the classic 'stripes' getup. Fun stuff, and a triumphant end to the US touring in 2005. A bittersweet moment to be sure! See ya'll next time! (Except for Japan - see you guys in December!)
