Thank God for Google Reader. (I think that’s the first time I’ve ever capitalized “God” in a blog post. Weird.) A couple days ago, I happened to be skimming blog posts and I was immediately notified of the “free tickets for Weezer at Kimmel” thing, and got in before the free tickets ran out.

It was pretty much a haystack of suck with a needle of awesome. It took us about an hour to get from the Westside to Hollywood and Highland; We pulled into the lot that we THOUGHT was the lot they’d validate, but no. So I said fuck it and paid $15 to park 5 spots from the fence separating the parking lot from the stage lot.

We got in line at 6:55, were into the stage lot at about 7:30, and Weezer went on about 8:45. We were subjected to the HORRIBLE recording parts of the Kimmel show. There wasn’t even a place to buy a bottle of water. LOOOOONG wait.

Then some bald-headed d-bag came out and hyped the crowd. There was a point where Rivers did one of those turn-around-and-laugh-hysterically-for-a-moment to Scott Shriner moments when the bald-headed hype man was screaming crazy shit like “Weezer is the BEST BAND AND YOU’RE ON NATIONAL TELEVISION SO MAKE SOME CRAZY APPLAUSE!!!!1!!!one!!!”

Either way, they played their first single and rocked it. They played the second new song, and as soon as it ended, Rivers said, “So do we have full control now?” Then it got fun. They immediately went into their MGMT/Lady Gaga cover, which was really fun to watch. Seeing Brian Bell say “ga-ga-ga-ga” in the hook on Poker Face was worth the hours of wasted time.

It was odd — Pat Wilson didn’t play drums, another guy did. Which is kinda disappointing only because he’s such a fun guy to watch drumming, and I have a total “watch awesome drummers” fetish. He played acoustic guitar for the first couple songs, and mixed it up after the TV set was over.

Even though it was a pain in the ass, and very abbreviated, I’m glad we went. It inspired me to StubHub tickets to the Palladium tomorrow night for the full show, which I otherwise wouldn’t have done. The tickets weren’t cheap, but fuck it, they’re my favorite band and I’m jamming out to Raditude as I write. Will. Be. Worth. It.

Enjoy these gems.

Weezer Featuring Lil Wayne – Can’t Stop Partying

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Weezer – Let It All Hang Out

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Weezer – Run Over By A Truck

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