Letters From the Labyrinth 394

Shred

On Friday night, I took my 16-year old to his first live concert -- Weezer, the Flaming Lips, and Dinosaur Jr.

The show took place at the Wells Fargo Center in Philly, which seats 21,000 people. Before the concert, I was somewhat bemused that it was 100% sold out. For Weezer? I thought to myself. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not disparaging the band. Far from it. I like Weezer's songs when they come on the radio. I can sing along with the hits. I can dance joyously to "Beverly Hills" and pogo to "Hash Pipe". But I knew nothing of the deep cuts or the band history. The main reason for that is because my teenage years and early twenties spanned the 1980s decade, and it was the 1990's grunge and alt-rock that briefly killed my beloved hair metal. There were a few 90s alt-rock bands that I really, really, really loved (Nine Inch Nails, Alanis Morissette, Oasis, Alice In Chains, Rage Against the Machine, the soundtracks to The Crow and Judgement Night). And a few that I really, really liked (Offspring, Soundgarden, Mother Love Bone). And a few that I actively loathed (Nirvana. Pearl Jam. God, I wanted to run over Pearl Jam with a lawnmower. Then I wanted to scoop up Creed along with those Pearl Jam grass clippings and feed them both through a wood chipper). And for the vast majority of the others? I didn't mind when they came on the radio, but that was about the extent of my involvement with them. I liked the songs I heard by, for example, Blink-182, Cake, Bush, Dinosaur Jr., 3 Doors Down, Harvey Danger, etc. but I couldn't have told you the names of their band members or their album titles, and I certainly wasn't catching them in concert.

Weezer fell into that category for me. They were a nerdier version of the Foo Fighters, and that's okay.

Boy, was I wrong. Weezer's live act, at least on this tour, was one of the most metal things I've ever seen. I did the math for my son, prior to the show, and as near as I can figure, this is right around the 100th live concert that I've attended. I've seen so many bands that I can't remember them all. But the nice thing about having seen that many bands over the course of time, I can make really easy comparisons. And thus, I feel confident when I say that Weezer's live experience is like if the four geeks from Big Bang Theory became some sort of Van Halen/Foo Fighters hybrid. Their stage set had all of the special effects of the best shows by Iron Maiden, Ghost, or Alice Cooper. It had the wry humor of Rush or Waylon Jennings. It had the volume of Motorhead. (And listen, I know how oud Motorhead could play. I survived them twice. And the only other time I've felt that concussive blast simultaneously in my ears and chest -- when the music is actively attempting to mug you -- was Friday night at Weezer). Quite simply, to quote one of my favorite songs by Overkill, they came to shred. They are so much heavier in concert than the radio airplay indicates.

A thoroughly enjoyable show. Recommend it even if you don't know their music, but just want to watch and listen to expert craftspeople and artists doing their best work.

The Flaming Lips were fantastic, as well. Never got the chance to see them live before now. They closed with "Do You Realize?" -- and I was moved to tears. Patreon supporters might understand why better than the rest of you. Suffice to say, it's been a tough few weeks for Ma Keene's boy. Death's been back on my mind again, in the aftermath of hauling the entirety of James A. Moore's library out of his former home. That... and a creeping, overwhelming certainty that I've been wrong about everything these last twenty-five years, and that writing is no form of immortality, and that all of this may have just been some stupid, futile pastime. So, yeah, when the lyrics to "Do You Realize?" washed over me, along with that melody? You're damn right I was moved to tears.

(And I know, objectively, that I'm not wrong and that writing is anything but a futile gesture, but look, people... sometimes I like to vent, too. Everybody else gets to vent, but oh no, Brian can't because he's Brian Keene and he has to clean up all the messes and hold everything together for everyone. Well, maybe I'd like to vent sometime too, ya know? Talking helps, And since anytime I try to talk, everybody wants to "fix" instead of just letting me frigging vent for a minute, I talk to my cats and I talk to my truck and I talk to my dead friends in my bookstore).

But I digress, and wow, we got off topic.

The important thing is -- my son and I both had a wonderful time. Truly a special memory that both of us will cherish. And given that he's a junior and will be off to college before I know it, and has a way busier social schedule than he did when he was little, it's getting tougher to find those truly special moments together. I'm glad we had this one. I'm glad it was something we could share together. It made the whole week leading up to it a lot easier to sit with, and by the time the concert was over, a weight had been at least temporarily lifted from my shoulders and my chest.

Here are a few pics.

If the tour comes anywhere near you, I recommend it.

Good morning. I’m Brian Keene and this is Letters From the Labyrinth — a long-running weekly email newsletter for fans, friends, and family.

As I said, this was the first concert I took him to. The first concert I took his older brother to was Faith No More. I’d like to take my step-daughter, Ada, to her first concert, too, but her favorites are Whitney Houston and Britney Spears, and the former isn’t touring anymore on account of her being dead, and Mary forbids me to go see Britney Spears because she seems to think I’d become a groupie and follow Britney around the world, which is just ridiculous.

I was supposed to go see Pink and Sheryl Crow next month (I wrote here last week about how much I enjoy Sheryl Crow’s music). But I gave my ticket to a long-time family riend who deserves to go to that show more than I do, so I guess that’s it for me and concerts in 2024.

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YOUR VOICE DESERVES TO BE HEARD is a new charity anthology benefitting the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. It is edited by Joe Ortleib, and featurs stories by myself, Matt Vaughn, David Simmons, Candace Nola, and many many more. It is available in both paperback and for Kindle.

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AUTHORCON IV — a Scares That Care event — takes place in just a few weeks from now. October 4th through the 6th, to be precise. I will post the programming schedule tomorrow.

The Guests of Honor include: Clay McLeod Chapman, John Anderson, Maurice Broaddus, Cullen Bunn, V Castro, Kristopher Triana, Jonathan Janz, Patrick C. Harrison III, Bitter Karella, Dakota Lawrence, Ronald Malfi, Rebecca Rowland, Thunderstorm Books, and Michael Allen Rose.

To purchase tickets for the event, or tickets to Maurice Broaddus’s Writing Grant workshop or to Dakota Lawrence’s Friday night show, click here.

The hotel room block has been extended to September 18th. If you haven’t yet booked your hotel, you can still get rooms in the room block. And if you tried to book at the hotel and the hotel website told you the room block was sold out and you booked a hotel elsewhere, you can still get rooms in the room block. To do that, you use this link.

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And speaking of events, this is happening next Saturday.

I’m supposed to give a 15 minute talk sometime between 10 and 11, but what I’d really like to do is an open Q&A. So show up and ask me questions.

Also in attendance (horror-wise) are Mary, Somer Canon, Richard Chizmar, Robert Swartwood, and Wesley Southard.

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Do you realize
That you have the most beautiful face?
Do you realize
We're floating in space?
Do you realize
That happiness makes you cry?
Do you realize
That everyone you know someday will die?

And instead of saying all of your goodbyes
Let them know you realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last…

That does it for this week. Thanks, as always, for reading. I’ll see you back here again next Sunday.

— Brian Keene