Third year in a row for Weezer! Nice!
This was my second experience at the World's Fair Park, but it was my first time seeing a show on the "lawn". The first time I saw Weezer was at the Amphitheater at the park, so it was covered and had seats. The lawn is self-explanatory. Just a big open field with a stage at one end with beer and nachos on the sidelines. I don't really recall port-a-potties at these early shows, but I'm sure they were there in some capacity. We were too young to drink, so we never had to keep going to the bathroom all night as we did years later.
It was a really great venue that I know I was too young to appreciate. We got to see a lot of awesome shows out there with the Sunsphere keeping a watchful eye on the city right next to us.
With these early shows, I'm still just really clueless as to how we got to these venues. Some I can remember very well, but these Knoxville shows all run together. I believe, later on, that we had a go-to place when it came to parking for the fairgrounds. But I can't for the life of me remember these earlier shows.
These shows at the fairgrounds were always hot. There's no covering in the middle of that area. The fences around the venue were tree-lined, but those spots got got quick! It was always t-shirts and shorts. I still will never understand goth kids that wear all black in 100 degree weather. I get it man, you have no soul and you're a void of a human, but damn, it's a thousand out right now! At least get some gray. Compromise.
I don't think any of us had heard of or listened to Red Five before we got there. They were really awesome, though! Fast, loud and high energy. For some reason I remember an upright bass, but that my have been another band. I really don't remember too much of these guys, we were just so stoked to see Weezer and No Doubt!!
Weezer!! Again!!
I can't stress enough how amazing it was to see Weezer at this time. They only had two albums out and some b-sides, so there was a finite amount of awesome they had at the ready. Meaning, whatever they played you were going to know it by heart and love every second of it. That's why the crowd lost our collective minds when they broke out 'My Name is Jonas' first! Just unbelievable. The rest of the show was just a phenomenal mix of Blue and Pinkerton with a fantastic cover of Waylon Jennings' theme to The Dukes of Hazzard thrown in the middle for S's & G's. As I reference over to the setlist.fm website, it says that there was also an encore. I vaguely recall that, but I can't be certain. I do know that Weezer played into the darkness, because that stage was dark when it was time for No Doubt to play.
-Sidebar
Way before we went to this show, we all were very confused as to why Weezer wasn't the headliner. In just a year's time No Doubt had risen very quickly to the top. It was crazy seeing Weezer as the headliner for two years only to see them playing second fiddle now. I guess, in retrospect, it was probably poor record sales. It's so weird when you're in the bubble and you can't see the other perspective. I mean, we all loved Pinkerton dearly. To most of the people my age, it's our favorite Weezer album. And to see, after the age of the internet, that it was a pretty unanimously disliked record is still crazy to me. I know time told, but me and my friends never saw it as that. It was always a beautiful piece of art that was real and genuine.
Then you get to see No Doubt in, my opinion, their prime. Holy Shit!! I love the fact that I got to see these guy twice and it was two fairly different experiences. I know Gwen had always been a showwoman, so it was no surprise to see her climbing the scaffolding on the side of the stage. So high she climbed. It was very impressive! But the band is what you really want to watch. It's remarkable when you can see a group of people having so much fun and being incredibly into their music at the same time. That place was hoppin'! Ska just makes you want to bounce up and down all night!
I'm not going to shit on what this band went on to do or if you dig what they did post-Tragic Kingdom, but this time right here was them at their absolute best. Everything before Tragic Kingdom is just great Punk/Ska. I'm glad they got to do it in the time they did it.
This last part kinda dwindled into some pretty hardcore gibberish, but, if you can decipher it, you know what I mean. Once ' Don't Speak' became their big single, that facilitated the direction they were going to go. I wish it hadn't. I wish we got at least one more great ska record from them, but I'll take what I got. Their first few releases were full of really great music, though!
No Doubt in the 90s was just something spectacular.
Also, check out "Live in the Tragic Kingdom". It was released in 1997 and it pretty much a copy/paste from the show we saw in Knoxville.
Are you happy now?
josh
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/no-doubt/1997/worlds-fair-park-knoxville-tn-2bdc240e.html
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/weezer/1997/worlds-fair-park-knoxville-tn-23dc240b.html
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