Wheatus Gig at The Pitz June 2002
An interlude written during CP Sherwood hols 2002 the Wheatus gig last Sunday. This one was the first of two, second time Frances came as well which was her first proper gig. I did not take the camcorder along so I have no vid or other record of this gig, a filmed the second one though.
John and I set off at about ten to eight to meet Tim and Andy there. When we arrived there was a queue to go in but no sign of them. After about ten minutes we were in and met them inside, they had been there earlier and had been told the gig would be delayed. Anyway, we went to get some drinks and chatted about this and that, no problems in the bat queue (cannot recall who served us, whether it was Lin or not and it might have been before her time). The we went into the hall and about five minutes later the support band came on. These were called Halo, a gang of earnest young men and quite good, so good I later bought their EPs. (Have not heard of them since so that support slot clearly did not enhance their career too much which was a shame). They were trying hard but I feel that they were a bit too serious for the Wheatus crowd. That said they were not badly received but you never get an encore when you are in the support slot. They did about half a dozen songs and jumped about a fair bit. Unusually the bass player also played keyboards. I liked the last two tracks, Sanctimonious and Incinerate Me the most then after a wait of about half an hour so we got more drinks and waited for the roadies to fine tune the stage for the main event. Eventually, it seemed, Wheatus came on. It must have been about 9.40 by then which was late given that there was just the one support band. But the reason for the lateness soon became obvious, their set would last not much more than an hour as I put it back then it was not so generous eh guys? The set began with Truffles and they played some new stuff mixed in with the well-known crowd-pleasers, Respect, LeRoy etc. All very well delivered but just the basic house lights.
The lead singer/guitarist used a wired acoustic 6 string and they had keyboards and two girl singers. The audience were determined to join in heckling most of the time. So it was not one of those gigs where it is only "I play you listen". They threw all sorts onto the stage including bottles of water and socks, soap etc so I thought it must be part of the touring ritual. It began with the sock throwing then soap, frogs etc with a note asking him to eat them! But of course he refused and threw them to the drummer. At one point he got hit by a plimsoll, not amused he proceeded to pretend (I think) to pee into it.
I did wonder if this enthusiasm might undermine the possibility of another Pitz gig; this was I think their first visit to our town. But later on he seemed pleased with the crowd reactions.
(Incidentally, as you can see from the video of the second Pitz gig, the audience were not the same mettle next time around which has always struck me as odd. In my many years of gigging at that place I have concluded that the band brings its own audience and very few are like me and attend many gigs).
Another thing certain members of the audience came up with to amuse themselves was my first witnessing of crowd surfing. One person - it could be male or female - would emerge from the back of the crowd to be carried forward and then disappear near the crowd barrier only to reappear for another go. Personally I was there to watch the band but clearly this lot wanted to amuse themselves too. It was all daft fun I suppose but could be dangerous, not that there were any bouncers involved.
Then when things were almost done, one of the girls who was on the shoulders of her boyfriend, got her top open to flash the band. To which the singer says "I can see your parents are not here tonight!". Weird and wild but mostly harmless fun, there was no violence we could see.
Yet more oddness was to come but this time from the band, the song everyone was waiting for, the big hit, the stone round their necks, was saved till last, Teenage Dirtbag. And before it was over they hauled all these kids up on stage for a bop and singalong. A group photo followed - something else I have not seen before nor since. Then they snapped the audience. Crafty that because with the houselights up they did not have to do an encore. Though they reassure us that the new album, only their second, would be out "before Xmas" (it wasn't).
It was a climactic end I suppose and a unique one but I felt rather cheated since the gig was over and we were home by 11 pm.
All in all it was not your average rock 'n' roll gig but an entertaining one. I say this as much for the audience as the band or their rendition of their songs. I had thought about taking the camcorder along but because it was a "big" gig for a change I thought someone at the door might object (no one did, no searches etc). So I thought better of it and as usual with these things, I regretted it but then again I sometimes wonder if this is how it should be, no camera equals great gig!
It bothered me because of the uniqueness of the gig and also because of his statement that we should steal their music. Back then I wondered if therefore there would be other souvenirs of the event on the web but to date it seems to have slipped down the cracks which is a great shame. It would have made a great souvenir. I made sure I took it along the second time they came to town but though it was still a good gig it was not as good - that said it was Frances' first proper gig and it is great to have a souvenir of that.
As I wrote at the time, The Wildhearts were coming soon, and would we go to that? I would have to download some of their songs first. Ho hum...