Betsy
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Betsy was the name of the van used during the earliest days of Weezer. The van (a 1984 Dodge Prospector)[1] was found by Karl Koch and Patrick Wilson in Fontana, California, which was then purchased for $5000 from a "dude who looked exactly like Muammar Gaddafi" (Koch).[2]
The van was bought on March 30, 1994,[3] and was supposed to bring the band to a gig at the Brave New World in San Francisco the next day. However, the van broke down and caused the gig to be cancelled.[4] The vehicle was originally named "The Enforcer", which was quickly changed to "Betsy" after the band tried driving up The Grapevine on I-5 (towards San Francisco) and stalled out due to a previously unknown broken fuel pump. An attempt to floor the van to get out of the suddenly extremely dangerous situation resulted in the universal joint shattering, which let the driveshaft fall to the roadway, rendering the vehicle unable to move forward. Only by carefully gliding backwards diagonally across 3 lanes of busy interstate traffic to the shoulder, and not pitching the van over the steep cliff face of said shoulder, did the band and van survive.[5]
It was first properly used at a gig at the Gaslight on April 27.[6] It carried Weezer from town to town throughout America and even into Canada throughout 1994.
The radio shuts itself off if we drive below twenty miles an hour. The sunroof leaks buckets in the rain. The air-conditioning refuses to function and the solid black exterior serves as a giant solar panel, ensuring a minimum temperature of 115 degrees in the summer. (We’re hoping the solar-panel effect will continue to keep us warm through the winter, since the heater also does not work.)
A notable accident would happen in the summer of 1994. Matt Sharp shot the van's radiator grill with a squirt gun, causing it to eject green froth and break down. The band was left stranded in Winnemucca, Nevada, gambling their cash and playing slot machines, Sharp winning nearly as much as Rivers Cuomo lost.[5] Only via Partrick and Karls "MacGuyver-ing" of the radiator hose with items bought from the towns only open market did the van survive the mountainous overnight drive to Sacramento.
Betsy would be replaced with a tour bus in fall 1994, when Weezer toured with Live for the Split Tour.[7] The van would still live on in spirit, immortalized in the artwork for the 2019 single "It's Been So Long".[1]
Betsy was put in storage for several years, and was finally sold (for $1) to Pat Finn in 1998, who used it to move from NYC to Portland OR. After several years of use the van was lent to a friend who left all the windows open in a rain storm, permanently rendering the cloth and foam covered interior a toxic environment. It was then sold to a local Portland band who eventually crashed and/or abandoned it somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.
Betsy II
Betsy II is the fictional spaceship used in Songs from the Black Hole. Its name was inspired by the original van. The rooms are organized into "pods". Little is known about the ship.
Betsy 2.0
Betsy 2.0 was the name of the band's fictional spaceship in the Voyage to the Blue Planet stage show. Betsy 2.0 had a robotic assistant named M1 who (via the video screen backdrop) advised the band when they were stuck in the "Pinkerton Asteroid Belt".
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Alec Longstreth. Alec Illustration. 12 May 2019. https://alecillustration.blogspot.com/2019/05/its-been-so-long-weezer-fan-club.html
- ↑ Huck Magazine interview with Rivers Cuomo - May/June 2011
- ↑ Koch, Karl (as Karlophone). (September 13, 2023). Discord message. Archived from the original on Weezerpedia at Weezerpedia Discord Q&A with Karl Koch - September 2023.
- ↑ Historic event: 04/01/1994
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Details article - January 1995
- ↑ Historic event: 04/27/1994 by Karl Koch
- ↑ MOO Magazine article - November 1994