Last night was fantastic. My hearing is not all back yet, and my head still hurts a bit. But it was worth it. Oh so worth it.
The night began with the drive down to pick up
Janet in freakin' Woodinville. Way out from the freeway, she (actually her family, since she really lives down by the beach in O-Town, SoCal) lives in a f-in' mansion! Okay, so then we head off to the Center House for some Gyros, bringing back memories of
eighth grade Gold Pass trips.
We get to the KeyArena and since we have floor access, we make our way right up to spittin' distance from the stage. Actually, we were closer than I've ever been at a concert, but not so close that we would die from the freaks who choose to mosh.
Hot Hot Heat opened the night. They are a mediocre band, with a front man who looks like Carrot Top, and prances around like he's channeling Mick Jagger. This is a trend I've noticed a lot lately in other bands as well, like the Hives, the Vines and other crappy rock bands that show up on the cover of Rolling Stone under the headline "Rock is Back," only to fall into obscurity the next week. Anyway, back to Hot Hot Heat. Lots of energy, but all the songs sounded the same. I will not be buying any albums anytime soon.
Then came
Weezer. Dear God. They rocked. I had liked Weezer before, but never owned any of their albums. That will now change. Unlike the crappy band that came before them, what struck me about Weezer is that every song had a different sound. And they rocked! Some highlights: After the initial set, Rivers appeared at the back of the arena and performed a solo acoustic rendition of "Island in the Sun." Awesome. After that, they pulled up a guy from the audience to play acoustic guitar with them for the Sweater Song. You could tell that this would be the Crowning moment it this young teenager's life. It's all downhill from here.
And the headliner was the
Foo Fighters. Very loud. Very awesome. Dave talked a lot about how much he misses Seattle. Aurora Avenue especially. Fred Meyers in specific. Great set. My throat is still soar from shouting along to "My Hero," "Best of You" and other awesome songs. It was like a wall of sound blowing me away. I hadn't had that sudden effect of being hit like that since seeing Pneuma play.
I love both the Foo Fighters and Weezer, but in all honesty, I think the night belonged to Weezer. The Foo Fighters played a great energetic set, but Weezer changed it up and offered a lot of variety.
PS- I've never added links before, so I thought I'd go wild this time.