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Sharp changes tour plans
Author: Emmet Matheson (The Leader-Post)
Published: June 16, 2003
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Regina wasn't supposed to be the only Canadian stop on Matt Sharp's current tour. It just sort of happened that way.
The founding member of Weezer (which he left in the late '90s, due to their then inactivity) and the Rentals (currently on permanent hiatus) had hoped to go from Vancouver to Toronto, but he hadn't counted on how much opposition his low-key performances would come up against.
"It's been so crazy," says Sharp. "The whole timing thing has been really insane. We've had Vancouver, who won't allow anybody to sit at the shows, which is, like, hilarious, because usually at our shows everybody brings pillows and comes and sits on the stage with us and we kind of try to get on top of each other as much as possible and bring down the walls of bullshit as much as we can between us and the audience."
"So Vancouver wouldn't let anybody sit, which is really strange because our set is really slow and kind of patient and sombre. So it's not like something you really want to stand for. Your knees get tired and whatever. So they've outlawed sitting."
"And Winnipeg had a shooting outside the club, and then the week before, they beat up some of the band members who were playing there. So they're saying that we've gotta bring extra security for the show, which is also hilarious because we have people who bring pillows and blankets, so it's like, OK, a major pillow fight could break out in Winnipeg at any minute."
"So it's all been really strange. And then the whole Toronto thing with all the paranoia about that. Canada's been an interesting one this round."
The release of Sharp's new record, his first under his own name, is going through as similar ordeal of rough as ridiculous barriers.
Originally due out earlier this month, Sharp says he hopes to have copies of Puckett's Versus The Country Boy available by the time he and bandmates Josh Hager and Greg Brown hit the stage in Regina.
Don't expect the power-pop anthems or Moog-driven rock of either of Sharp's previous bands, though. For his new gig, Sharp has shifted gears quite markedly, offering up quieter, more personal songs with a strong emphasis on ambience and engaging the listener.
"All the music I made with the Rentals and Weezer, my heart and head and soul were very invested in what we were doing," says Sharp. "That was the kind of music I wanted to hear from other people. But you can get into a place where you're doing those things and then you kinda stop asking questions after a while. And then you start seeing that the kind of record that are in your collection is not the kind of music that you're playing too much anymore and it's actually kind of far from it."
"I noticed that quite a bit with my peers, where I would go see their bands and they'd be doing a certain kind of music, and then I'd come to their house for dinner and that's not the kind of music they'd be playing or the kind of music they'd listen to when they're travelling or any of that. I didn't want to be in that position."
Sharp says that smaller clubs like the Exchange are typical of the venues he's playing these days, and a welcome change from the arenas and stadiums he performed in during Weezer's mid-90s peak.
"It's such a different experience from all the other tours that I've done before with all the Weezer stuff and all the Rentals stuff and all that," he says. "You get to find these places that are really fascinating. There's all these incredibly great rooms that I never would have known about otherwise, that have such character to 'em and they're places that if I was going to see a show, I would be into going to. So I've really enjoyed that part of it."
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