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February 09, 2012
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February 07, 2012
Weezer Cruise: Day Four
The last full day of the Weezer Cruise was pretty fantastic. We started the day by heading down to the team trivia contest with Karl Koch, Weezer webmaster extraordinaire. Karl has been with the band forever so we figured he would pull out some difficult questions. Yowzers, was our prediction right. Luckily, Team Honey Badgers did better at trivia than we did at shuffleboard. We even had some all-star help -- Daniel from Ozma. He strolled into trivia wearing a poncho and sunglasses (perfectly natural to wear indoors at 11am, no?) and sat down next to us. Clearly we asked him to be a Honey Badger. He was a good contributor to the team. He knew that the "Say It Ain't So" video was filmed at Amherst House and was good was generally good on identifying which Weezer b-sides matched which singles. We ended up finishing middle of the pack, but I still maintain that we should have got some sort of bonus points for the fact that a song by one of our team members was the answer to the final question (Q - "What song title by a band on this cruise is also mentioned in they lyrics of a Weezer song" A - "1988" by Ozma. The Weezer song is "Lullaby for Wayne.").
Yuck played the first show of the day on the outdoor stage. I missed their show in DC in the fall even though I had tickets (silly work) so I was pumped to finally see them. They played all of their fabulous self-titled album. The bass player killed me. It was hella windy on the deck. Everyone in the crowd looked a hot mess with hair flying all over the place. Not the bass player from Yuck. Her hair was down and yet the wind didn't seem to touch her. She also wore a ridiculous multi-colored leopard print jumpsuit and somehow still looked like the coolest person ever. It defied all logic.
A few hours later I ran into a very drunken lead singer of Yuck and their touring manager in the elevator bank. I was wearing a Chelsea jersey. They are from Tottenham. Anyone who knows anything about English football will know that the rest of said encounter did not go very well. My Chelsea jersey was a bigger hit with Pat Wilson, who Denise and I met that afternoon at the shuffleboard finals. The guys in Weezer are huge soccer fans, so Pat and I got to talk shop. He supports Man City, so we reveled in our dislike of Man United.
Denise was lucky enough to get picked to ask a question on stage during the band Q&A, so after our encounter with Pat I headed to the main deck to staked out a great spot to take pictures of her, which unfortunately meant having to sit through the end of The Nervous Wreckords' set. No me gusta. Last I saw Denise she looked like she might throw up on someone she was so nervous about said Q&A, so we agreed that if she had a panic attack, I would fill in. Low and behold the thing is about to get started and I see a frantic Denise on the side of the stage jumping up and down, waving at me to come over to her. So I gave up the awesome spot that I'd suffered through the Nervous Wreckords to get and ran over to see if she was having a panic attack. Turns out some girl named Elizabeth didn't show up to ask her question, so Denise convinced the cruise folks to let me ask it. File this under reason 5,392 that Denise is awesome. So we both got to ask our questions on stage with the band and Scott Shriner hugged me.
While Denise hung out with an old high school friend, I headed indoors to see The Antlers. In a different setting, I think I would have really liked them. It just didn't fit with the cruise. They were very experimental. It seemed like they should be opening up for MGMT or some such.
Before dinner we busted out our fake mustaches for mustache night and entered our final contest of the cruise -- mixology. Unlike shuffleboard, we actually have some decent mixology skills. Denise can make a mean cocktail, and I, um, can drink a mean cocktail. The mixology contest was supposed to be with our new favorites Sleeper Agent, but when we got there, it was Wavves instead. I can only guess that this had something to do with Tony from Sleeper Agent being sent to boat jail on night one and being subsequently banned from purchasing alcohol on board. The contest was pretty simple: write down a mix drink, give it a fun name, and submit. Then Wavves made the drinks then did a taste test of the entries. Their favorite drink wins an autographed Weezer sailor hat. Their were only 14 entries, so we stood a decent chance. Denise and I conspired for maximum effect -- I let her make both drinks and I used my musical knowledge to name our drinks after Wavves songs to win favor with the band. Her drink got good reviews, but by the time they got to mine (halfway in) everyone in the band declared it the "best drink yet!" I could smell victory. They only had positive things to say about one other drink. It was going to be me or him. They start debating. The drummer, bless him, insisted that my drink was the best and lobbied for me throughout. But all of a sudden I had come in second to a drink that they didn't even say anything positive about during the contest..."The Weezer Geezer." And that is how I lost the mixology contest to an 80 year old lady. I declare shenanigans.
After dinner I saw another band that I didn't know much about, The Knocks, who were super fun and dance-y. And DCers -- they are coming to U Street Music Hall early next month, so grab your tickets. If I'm out of my stupid boot/soft cast thing by then, I'll be there. After that brief dance party I headed into the indoor lounge to see Yacht Rock Review and snag a good seat for the last show on the cruise, the third set from Ozma. They finally played "Apple Trees," as Jose promised us they would when we met him on day two. The atmosphere was fantastic complete with crowd surfing and the crowd chanting "Ozma cruise!" between songs. As previously mentioned on the blog, they ended the cruise with a fabulous cover of the Rental's "Friends of P."
That brought my Weezer cruise to an end. Apparently I missed a late night hootenanny in the library that night that Rivers stopped by. I was consoled by the fact that Denise had managed to win a ginormous Weezer cruise banner and gave it to me. So my living room just got a bitchin' new decoration. Photos from Day Four below.
Weezer Cruise: Day Three
Day three wasn't just the best day of the cruise, it was pretty much the best day ever. I got to 1) go snorkeling with Rivers Cuomo and 2) see Weezer perform my favorite album in its entirety.
It all started when a few Carnival employees gave us incorrect info about the docking process in Cozumel. We were supposed to go an excursion to the Mayan ruins at Tulum. But we ended up missing that after said Carnival employees told us to wait for the announcement that said we could get off the ship. That announcement never came, and by the time we got off the boat, we'd missed the bus to Tulum. At that point there weren't a lot of options to switch to. I decided to go snorkeling, while Denise ditched the excursions entirely and just walked around downtown Cozumel.
As our snorkeling group (12 Weezer cruisers) was about to depart, one of the girls in our group spotted an incognito Rivers eating at a nearby cafe. She declared "I brought him a gift all the way from Japan. I have to give it to him!" before darting off to the cafe, much to the dismay of our snorkeling guide who had no idea who Rivers or Weezer was. She was over there for a good five minutes, which only pissed off the snorkeling guide more, and as she finally got up to return, Rivers started walking towards us with her. I don't know what the girl said to him, but it resulted in Rivers joining our excursion! First we had to convince grumpy snorkeling guide man that this was all okay. Rivers wasn't on his list, so he said he couldn't come. Rivers offered to pay, but the guy said it was too late. Snorkeling guy tried to shuffle the rest of us into two cabs but we refused to get in without Rivers. Sensing that we weren't going to back down anytime soon, snorkeling guy relented and let Rivers join us. I was in the same cab as Rivers, but I was still having an inner freak out so I did not allow myself to talk to him until I calmed down, so I let the Japanese girls do the talking.
When we got to the snorkeling reef, I finally worked up the nerve to talk to Rivers. He just as awkward and quiet (in a friendly way) as you would imagine. He couldn't figure out how to put on his life vest, so I helped him. Then we all went snorkeling. With Rivers Cuomo. It was amazingly ridiculous. I basically repeated the cycle of: look around, see fish, see fish, see the lead singer of my favorite band, chuckle to myself, and swallow water because of said chuckling. Afterward we all hung around to grab lunch and beer (expect Rivers who does not drink). Rivers was fairly quiet during lunch until one of the guys revealed that his dad is the coach of the Canadian Chinese Chess team. This clearly sparked a "What is Chinese Chess?" conversation in which Rivers had a ton of questions.
Back on the boat it was Dinosaur Jr.'s turn to play the sail off show. Luckily we'd been warned by Denise's boyfriend to bring earplugs for Dinosaur Jr. For all the concerts I go to, the only time that I've ever really needed earplugs was for Sleigh Bells. Dinosaur Jr. was almost at that level, so I'm glad we brought those along. There were a lot of painful looking people sans earplugs around the boat. Dino's live show is very solo-heavy and a bit jam-y for my liking. But it was still cool to finally see them live. I do, after all, have a bobble head dinosaur named "Junior" on my desk at work.
We enjoyed Sleeper Agent's set so much on Day Two that we changed our plans and saw them again in lieu of catching J. Mascis' solo set. Then we headed into the auditorium to claim our fantastic fifth row seats for Weezer's Pinkerton/b-sides show. The auditorium only fit half of the ship, so some folks saw the show the previous night. Because a few lucky folks won tickets to both Weezer indoor shows, the band played an entirely different 45 minute set of b-sides on each night. Sadly, we missed the night that they busted out "Jamie" (my favorite b-side) and "Mykel and Carli" (the first time they've played the song live since the funeral concert in 1997). But they did save some fabulous b-sides for our night, including "Suzanne", "Devotion", and "Tragic Girl." They ended the b-sides set by playing "The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived" (which is much better live than recorded) before taking a short break (during which Karl Koch narrated a slide show of old Weezer pictures) and coming back to play Pinkerton. I've seen Weezer many, many times in concert. Before their recent Memories tour, they never played Pinkerton songs, save "The Good Life." The first few times I saw Weezer live, Rivers would even intro Pinkerton songs like "El Scorcho" before launching into different songs. So, needless to say, it was a thrill to finally hear the songs off my favorite album live. It was a definite highlight of the cruise.
The theme party on this night of the cruise was 80s prom. Sequins and puffy sleeved dresses were all over the place and it made for hilarious people watching. Denise and I first took our 80s garb to 80s karaoke with Jose from Ozma. It was fun to see Jose and Ryen (also from Ozma) kick things off with "Rock You Like A Hurricane" but the song selection after that was weak, so we left for the 80s prom dance party. After some people watching there, I headed back upstage to catch the end of Wavves set on the main deck, which was just as enjoyable as their set the day before. What a good day. Pictures from Day Three below.
February 06, 2012
Weezer Cruise: Day Two
Denise woke up early on our first full day at sea to participate in the yoga class led by Ozma's keyboard player Star Wick. Being as inflexible as I am, I opted to sleep in until the qualifying rounds of the shuffleboard tournament, in which our Team Honey Badgers was unfortunately bounced in the first round by a formidable 18-0 score. Shuffleboard, it turns out, was much harder than anticipated.
Up next was our turn to take a photo with Weezer (!!!). A guy a few people in front of us had a giant Muppets-style puppet on his arm. So, that was clearly the people watching highlight of the day. Going through the other photos on the cruise website we also saw that someone proposed (successfully) during their picture with the band. It was a fairly in and out experience -- the band (including Rivers in a full captain's outfit and rhinestone bedazzled sunglasses) was sitting down and you went and stood behind them to take the picture. So not a lot of time to chat, obviously. But we made a point to say thank you as we were being shuffled off, at which point Scott Shriner sees me, turns to the rest of the band and declares, "Hey, I saw that girl sing karaoke last night!" Say what you will about my skills, at least I'm memorable.
With that excitement out of the way, we grabbed lawn chairs and relaxed while Yacht Rock Review, the only cover band on the ship, played a long set on the deck. I checked out the surprisingly large water slide and met Pat Wilson's family in the process. Then, having not won tickets to the book event with Rivers (he just released The Pinkerton Diaries, which costs a ridiculous $75 -- hello, you are not an academic textbook!) we checked out the Weezer game show for a bit, but that wasn't too interesting, so we headed back to our room to prepare for the first theme party of the cruise -- ugly sweater night.
Wavves played a great show on the lido deck that evening, kicking off with "King of the Beach" and covering most of the songs from the album of the same name, plus a few of the recent songs off Life Sux like "I Wanna Meet Dave Grohl." Nathan Williams recounted tales from his raucous first night on the cruise, which ended in Tony from Sleeper Agent being sent to boat jail and Williams being carried back to his room by a guy named Willers, who left him a note that said that their cats look alike. So that was clearly entertaining. The Wavves set started a little late so I missed the first bit of Lou Barlow's solo set on the indoor stage. Barlow was the busiest man on the cruise. In addition to multiple sets with his two bands, Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh, he played two solo sets. Like J. Mascis' solo work, Barlow's solo work is melo and acoustic -- quite the contrast to his bands, which are among the loudest that you will ever hear. His set was good and included a few covers, though not his fabulous cover of La Roux's "Bulletproof" (unless I missed that when I was still at Wavves).
After dinner we were primed for another Ozma set. We had accomplished half of our Ozma goal earlier in the day when we met Jose. They were fabulous, as always. Denise liked this set better than the night before. They were pretty similar, though they swapped in a few songs such as "1988" that they didn't play night one. All of their sets were surprisingly light on songs from their latest album, Pasadena, not that I'm complaining. Much as I like all of Ozma's albums, I will never tire of hearing tracks from Rock and Roll Part 3 and the Doubble Donkey Disc live. Bonus points to Star from Ozma for busting out a keyboard/music note ugly sweater. Appropriate on multiple levels.
Not wanting to stand outside in the wind any longer, we headed to the indoor stage to catch the end of Yuck's set (only caught three songs, sadly) and stayed there to check out Sleeper Agent, a band that we knew nothing about other than the fact that one of them went to boat jail the night before. They were definitely the discovery of the cruise. They were instantly likable and did a fabulous INXS cover. I just picked up their most recent CD and it is pretty fantastic. They are touring with Ben Kweller this spring, but sadly there isn't a DC date yet.
Pictures from Day Two below.
Weezer Cruise: Day One
I'm still wrapping my head around the awesomeness that was the Weezer Cruise. Since each day was so jam packed, I figured it would be easiest to split the concert reviews and stories up by day. Here's day one:
I figured the people watching would be good. I had no idea how great it would be. It started in the airport when we spotted a guy who had modified a Victor Cruz Giants jersey to be a "=w= Cruz" jersey. It continued in the Port of Miami terminal when we saw two girls in matching fury wolf head hats. It reached a new high when we boarded the ship and encountered a pack of eight folks dressed as superheros (with the girls sporting matching tutus in addition to their superhero t-shirts and capes). This was, mind you, all happening on the ONLY day of the cruise that did not have a costume party.
There were also, as you might imagine, more people in Weezer shirts than you've ever seen before. This was a point of contention among cruisers. I took the position that just as you don't want to be "that guy" who wears the shirt of the band you are seeing to the concert, you also don't want to be "that guy" who wears it on the cruise of that band. So I opted to pack only shirts of bands not on the cruise -- The Stone Roses, LCD Soundsystem, and Mates of State. Judging by the number of Weezer shirts I saw in four days, most people disagreed with me. The Stone Roses shirt drew positive comments from a shockingly high number of cruisers.
After lunch, some pool time, and a mandatory safety drill, we headed up to the lido deck to nab a good spot for the Weezer sail off show. The band kicked things off, as they regularly do, with "Hash Pipe." They played about 45 minutes of "greatest hits" materials -- many Green album material and singles, with the exception of "Blast Off!" -- a fabulous track from the infamous lost album "Songs from the Black Hole." The energy from the crowd was great and the band was clearly having a good time. Rivers even donned a captain's hat and scaled up the ship's water slide at one point, leaving Pat Wilson to sing in his absence. The band took a short break as the sun set and when they returned the crowd was even more amped to hear the band bust through the blue album in its entirety. It was one of the best shows I've seen the band do (and I've seen them A LOT). During "Holiday" someone busted out a giant Weezer flag and if you look closely you can see Rivers salute it:
After dinner and a short nap to recharge, we headed back to the lido deck to see my second favorite band, Ozma, play their first of three sets on the cruise (Denise and I saw all three -- the vibe was better at their third show, which was indoors, but the first remains my favorite, probably because I was so excited to see them for the first time in about four years). The band played a great hour-long set, ending with an epic crowd sing-a-long of "Eponine." Denise and I resolved that our goal for the cruise was to meet Star and Jose, our two favorite members of Ozma.
Then we headed off to karaoke. Loyal readers will recall my brainstorming session for Weezer Cruise karaoke songs. I was mentally prepared to go with Garbage, but alas they had no Garbage, so I panicked and opted for one of my standards -- the Old School version of "Total Eclipse of the Heart." This ended up going well, complete with 1) some random dude rushing the stage to harmonize with me, 2) a drunk group of folks forming an interpretive dance circle in front of the stage, and 3) Scott Shriner of Weezer commenting on my performance (though you'll have to wait for the Day Two recap for that story). My guess that Weezer Cruise karaoke would prove unique from regular karaoke turned out to be correct. The song selection was much heavier on rock -- Jimmy Eat World, Foo Fighters, etc. than normal. A few pictures from Day One are below.
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