Indie Rock Road Trip
For me there were four shows not to miss at the Hayden Homes Amphitheatre in Bend Oregon. The Indie Rock Road Trip was one of them. Did it live up to the hype? What is indie anyways?
The INDIE ROCK ROADTRIP concert poster displayed at Smith Rock Records in downtown Bend
At a six, my excitement level for Weezer was low. I was still processing the earlier rock & roll excitement from Rival Sons, Stone Temple Pilots and The Smashing Pumpkins, The World is a Vampire tour.
I wanted another rock concert.
When White Reaper came on stage, I was pleasantly surprised to bang my head a little bit. Was this going to be a rock concert or Indie? What is Indie anyways? What fascinated me about White Reaper was the tone Tony Esposito took to vocals. During Spoon, drummer Nick Wilkerson was spotted just four people away from us, rock on! He knew tonight’s intensity was going to be an eleven.
WHITE REAPER!
My excitement for Spoon was a nine, although they were opening for Weezer they were the headliner imo. I recall cueing up Spoon’s 2021 Album Lucifer on the Sofa at Quarter Note Acoustic while fumbling the stylus onto the wax. I also recall that Spoon’s music isn’t hard, but is more indie, softer, and mellower. Spoon brought a rock show and the intensity level was great. What stood out were the number of different guitars brought on stage. I tried to listen carefully to each guitar tone, but it were the pedals that influenced the sonic colour more than the guitars. Just like HiFi gear, I want to understand what is uniquely special about musical instruments, especially guitars.
Notable during Spoon was the lower-level volume which made for a high resolution concert. I could hear every instrument on stage and positioning through the PA was pinpoint. The left side guitars had a strong left PA channel presence, as with the right and center stage. The soundstage was wide and left me wanting that as a stereo system attribute.
SPOON!
Okay, my low-level excitement for Weezer got destroyed. Early in the show vocalist and guitarist Rivers Cuomo turned up a large stage-prop volume dial to eleven, and so it was eleven. The sound was big and was better than any stereo system I’ve ever heard playing Weezer. The crowd’s energy reflected the volume dial.
My earlier lack of excitement for Weezer was that I don’t really listen to Weezer tracks that often, and their songs are simple. Destroyed, I’ve been playing Weezer on my Sony WF-1000X4M headphones religiously since the show. The music has created a connection to that show, the crowd’s energy, the people whom I associated with on that night, and to that night. Music is power.
The crowd sings Africa while waiting for Weezer to come on stage:
I hear the drums echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation
She's coming in, 12:30 flight
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation
I stopped an old man along the way
Hoping to find some old forgotten words or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say, "Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you"
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless, longing for some solitary company
I know that I must do what's right
As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
I seek to cure what's deep inside
Frightened of this thing that I've become
Hurry boy, she's waiting there for you
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa (I bless the rain)
I bless the rains down in Africa (I bless the rain)
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa (gonna take the time)
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
Oh no, It go, It gone, Bye bye. Who I, I think, I sink. And I die
WEEZER Say it ain't so. Your drug is a heartbreaker.
What is Indie? Well, it can be independent of other’s bias, expectations, or the way things have been done before. But the INDIE ROCK ROADTRIP was rock & roll and I encourage you to get tickets, fly somewhere and experience this for yourself.
Indie is wearing a Judas Priest tee-shirt whenever you want.
On an editorial note; I have learned that recording horizontally is preferred for YouTube and recording vertical for Insta and Shorts.
