Historic event: 08/14/1992

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first tour! - driving around looking for a show in NorCal

Jason's previous band, The Brotherhood Groove Grand Junction, was playing an outdoor party up in Gureneville, CA on the 16th and had invited Jason to bring his "new band" up to play. Weezer decided to try and fit some other shows in to make the trek north more worth it. They scored a gig at Marsuggi's, a smallish bar/live entertainment place in San Jose. They also had a gig lined up in Eureka CA, on the 15th, and then the party show on the 16th. The 14th was left up to chance.

Karl drove the band and the gear in his Bronco II with a U-Haul trailer. The only thing was there were no enclosed trailers available, so the band was forced to rent what became known as the hooptie ride, an open trailer on which they stretched a blue tarp over the gear. This made it impossible to leave the truck anywhere without bringing the gear along.

On this day, the guys had failed to secure a gig, so the idea was to just show up at bay area clubs until they got added to a show! First they Tried Gilman Street, the famous Berkeley punk club where Green Day got their start. They arrived to an empty club with one dude doing some work. He explained the club wasnt open that night. So we looked around, chatted for a while, and left. Next it was up to the nearby Berkeley Square club. They refused to add weezer to their bill, as it was already full. Negotiations broke down and we were back on the road. Finally we happened upon a club called "Thunder Bay" which looked a bit like a biker bar, but by this point in the evening, we had nothing to lose. After some tense negotiations, no dice, no weezer show tonight. This technique is not recommended.

While riding around, karl had busted out his portable cassette recorder, and captured a lot of hilarious commentary, as well as a group acapela rendering of the bizarre Rivers 8 track experimental piece "Please Sweet Peepers".

We eventually retreated to Jasons Mom's apartment in Oakland, where the piano and a flute were used to make some bizarre improvised recordings, such as the "Symphony of Sludge" with Rivers on flute and Jason+others on piano. [these recordings are not yet listed in the recording history, having only recently been re-discovered.]


See also