So I went to the blink 182 concert Weezer concert this past Labor Day weekend. I was so pumped up that blink-182 got back together, I figured this would be an awesome time for a WevilFest get together. So I called up Scott, Ben, and Josh to see if they were interested in going if I bought the tickets and they all said yes. The nearest cities were Kansas City and St. Louis and Kansas City was more centralized for everyone, so KC it was. So it was set. September 4th in Kansas City, we shall rock! Unfortunately, Josh did not make the trip with us, because he lives in Chicago and it would cost too much for him to travel down (my sincerest apologies to Josh). So it came down to Ben, Scott, and I.
After work on Thursday, I drove up to stay the night with Ben in LG so I wouldn’t have to drive like 8 hours on Friday. We left about 10am to head off to Kansas City. The forecast for the concert was unfortunately rain and thunderstorms and to add insult to injury, we had to drive up to KC in the rain. The rain was supposed to clear out by 7pm, but we hoped that the rain would go away or at least let up so we could see the concert. We arrived in KC around 2:30pm and went straight for the venue so we could go in. But with $10 for parking, we said “Screw it!” and headed back to a shopping center to find some food. We stopped at an Applebee’s to eat some lunch and meet Scott. Scott took forever getting the Applebee’s so we ate without him. We hung out for a little bit before heading into the concert. We all jumped into my car to save money on parking and headed into the gate. All of us started up towards the grass, because that’s where the General Admission area was, but little did we know Travis and Dustin had better seats for us. Travis and Dustin came up the night before to get good seats and good seats they got. We got to sit in stadium seats for the concert, even though they were used for breaks in between bands. We never really figured out why people in the VIP section paid like $40 more than us, but yet we were in seats in front of them. Thanks to Dustin and Travis for getting us some prime seats.
With some of the times being pushed back due to some rain, we arrived right after Chester French played. Next up, the Von Bondies and I have never heard of them before this and I will forget them after this. One thing good about the Von Bondies is that the lead singer almost got hit by someone’s shoe. I mean another 3 inches and it would have smacked him right in the face. Pretty funny.
Taking Back Sunday took the stage next and originally I thought that I had one of their albums, but I did not. I have heard some of their stuff, but never really got into their music. But they played a great show and showed me why I should get into their music. The lead singer is really good with slinging his mic everywhere (wrapping it around his neck and what not). Over all a great all around performance and it probably would have been even better if they played at night under the lights.
Once again, Weezer defeats the weather!!! Weezer took the stage next and they were fawesome! I was thinking that this might be one of the best concerts I have attended if blink-182 is this good. Anyways, there was a guy in front of us that had a set list of what Weezer would be playing. We all took a pic of it and it turns out that he worked for the venue. They played all but a couple of songs on it. I’m not really sure why they didn’t play them, but no matter they did not disappoint. They all came out wearing jumpsuits like a basketball team and once they started playing they sounded awesome. So crisp, clean, and in sync. If you look at the pics you will see a trampoline next to the drum set and we were expecting to see something crazy, but nothing happened. Rivers used it to bounce his guitar off of it after a song and it landed on its neck and he jumped on it occasionally during songs. One of the coolest things of the evening was that Rivers used a loop machine to play “Island in the Sun.” He started off with the drums, then tambourine, bass, and then his acoustic guitar. He also had us singing the “hip, hip” part and some “ooohhhs and aaahhhs” too. It was the first time that I had seen them in concert and I loved them. Thanks to Josh, Ben, and Scott for turning me on to them back at Hillsdale. Here’s some videos; My Name is Jonas, Troublemaker, War Pig.
Blink-182 was up next and I have been waiting for this ever since I heard that they got back together and were going to tour this summer. I have never seen them in concert and wasted a few opportunities back in college to go see them. But not this time. I am going. (Side note: the guy that sat in front of us with Weezer’s set list also told us that Travis’ drum set was made out of chrome. Every bit of it.) We became more and more excited. Anyways, I have video of their intro/opening song Dumpweed. Their set looked awesome with 6 circular video screens and tons of LED’s, spotlights, gobos, and lasers. There was a lot going on and it looked good. There were many bright lights blinding the crowd that probably put a few people into seizures. Mark and Tom started singing and they sounded off. Like Mark’s harmonies were too loud and Tom was flat. I thought maybe this song will be like that….nope, all of them were. They sang many of their lines in the octave below the usual. I understand concerts can be rough on voices and that is typical, but they did it a lot. And I expected them to be stupid and be jackasses (ie. Boner Springs instead of Bonner Springs and “Hey Mark, Kansas City is a slut and we are double teaming it while giving high fives), but it seemed like most of the night was them trying to fake being dumb, stupid, and vulgar. They forgot lines to at least 4 or 5 of their songs. It was like none of them wanted to be there. I realize that their friend, DJ AM, had passed away and that was still in the back of their minds. I’m not saying that wouldn’t have an effect on them, but if they didn’t want to play, they should have postponed the show, like they did the other two before it.
And to top it all off with another kick in the crotch, I didn’t get to see a Travis Barker drum solo. I heard from early reviews of the show that his drum solo was freaking awesome. There was also video of it floating around on the internet, but I restrained myself because I knew I would be seeing it live. They left the stage and I’m thinking Travis will come back and start off the encore with the solo, but noooo….nothing. They did their encore and then left. Here are two videos of the solo that I missed out on. Solo f/Wisconsin and solo f/New Jersey. Once I watched what I missed, I was even more pissed off. And come to find out (via @GGGGGGGG on twitter), Travis didn’t play the solo because he played it to a DJ AM song. Totally understandable, but there are thousands of other songs to play with or I would have loved to just hear and see Travis play without music. I personally thought that being on tour already for about a month has taken a toll on their voices, but the majority in the group thought that they didn’t care and that they sound that bad live. Personally I hope it is the former, but doesn’t matter now…it’s done. So, I saw some awesome bands this past weekend, but it is too bad that blink-182 was not one of them. This weekend shall be known as the Weezer concert and blink-182 will not be played on any of my electronic devices for some time. They don’t deserve it. Here’s some videos; Intro/Dumpweed, Butchering What’s My Age Again, Ending.
