A Fool for the Last Living Rock King - Hot Hot Heat, Weezer and the Foo Fighters - 10/13/05

For the last month or so, I've had this weird obsession with the Veruca Salt song "Shutterbug." I've played it almost every day at least once. I'm digging it because of the lyrics and the bass line.

What does this have to do with last night's concert you might ask? Well, it's rumored that the song is about a love triangle between singer Louise Post, Dave Grohl and Winona Ryder (because Winona Ryder really needs to bang more hot rock stars, right?). In the song, Post allegedly refers to Dave Grohl as the last living rock king. This sparked some debate between me and Paul. I've been joking and cynically saying that about Dave ever since I learned about the song's meaning, not totally believing it. But last night, he won me over.

Let's start at the very beginning...

Hot Hot Heat opened and we got there late. We only got to see the last three songs, none of which were "Bandages." I'd love to say that this was the biggest disappointment of my day, but in the big picture it was no big deal. I'm sure I'll get to see them again another time. What I did see was great. I like Hot Hot Heat in that weird kind of way. Our seats were great. We were exactly center to the stage on the other side of the floor, tenth row.

So after that we walked around the concourse. Lots of nerdy geeky types were hanging around. These people have no idea how to walk through a crowd. I had enough and we went back to our seats. The stage had changed by this time and was set for Weezer.

They came out and played a lot of stuff that I knew and liked. Rivers came out to a little platrom right in front of us and sang "Island In the Sun" accoustic. Then they pulled some guy up on stage to play the acoustic part of "The Sweater Song" while Rivers made his way back to the stage. The guy was okay, but he was a little slow. At another point in the show, Rivers said that his father was in the audience and seeing the band play live for the first time ever. They broke into "Say It Ain't So" and I think I blew out my vocal chords. That was the song that got me to like them. I really hadn't liked anything of theirs until that song came out. They covered "Big Me" and Blur's "Song 2." At another point in the show, the stage changed a little and showed these lights that looked like stars. I was a little bummed that they didn't play "The Good Life" but again, not the most disappointing thing about my day. Overall, I'd say not a bad show. Paul said that he wouldn't want to follow that act, but I had every ounce of faith in "the last living rock king."

In between sets, we sat around and watched these people about two rows ahead of us that were stoned on some weak shit (I don't even smoke and I could tell) and kept high fiving excessively. They kept buying these big tubs of popcorn. One chick got a little crazy and tried to throw some at some people several rows back and hit me. I didn't get mad. Afterall, we all get our turn to be the wasted asshole. I'm sure my turn is coming soon.

Then the stage was set. There were these chopped up looking screens, more fiber optic lights (c'est trendy) and a background that just looked like a bunch of speakers. Dave screamed through the first song. I don't know what it was, but I fell in love. The energy was amazing. Then they broke into more familiar stuff and played just about all the songs that you would know. I also finally got one right and predicted that "Monkey Wrench" would be the last song of their encore which also featured CCR's "Born on the Bayou."

Dave also talked to the audience a lot, sometimes referring to us as "idiots." I'll forgive him. He played a song for the people in the nosebleed section and said, "I might seem far away right now, but tonight I'll be in your dreams giving you a big hickey on the side of your neck. Free hickeys for the nosebleed section!" He also had some commentary on the recent issues regarding Philly losing its only alternative music station, which was really cool. He stage dived and crowd surfed to an exit and ran to the platform where Rivers stood during their set and did the dueling guitar thing. There he was, only 10 rows away. *panting* He mentioned that the secret to sreaming like a rock star is a Coors Light and some Crown Royal and that he felt like the guy who sits around at the party, drinking beer and talking too much when really he should just turn up the music. For the last song of the regular set, he played "Everlong" for his wife, starting out slow and soft and then the band kicked in at the end. They put a spotlight on her and a spotlight on him. It was sweet. He also played a song for his mother during the encore and said, "If it wasn't for Mamma Jean, none of us would be here tonight." I love him!

We got out of there and came home relatively late. No bootleg t-shirt guys in the parking lot, unfortunately. I had to get up early today to travel to a different office, leaving me pretty drained today.

But it was all so worth it. The distraction was much needed.