Sarnia Bayfest, my first Weezer concert (I bought an enhanced ID just to go to Canada to see them)

I slowly started accumulating more of their music over time, and I always would play one of their CD's whenever I felt down, because Weezer had this magical way of making me feel better. It wasn't that their music was always super uplifting, but just belting it out along with Rivers & co. was therapeutic.  However in 2008 when The Red Album was released, that was when the obsession began. I played that album to death, I am pretty sure Kyle was borderline hating Weezer at that point.  2008 was a rough year for me, I had a "real" full time job at that point, but I had also wanted to finish school, so I was going full time as well. I have always thrived on being busy, especially when studying something I was passionate about, but at the same time I felt very lonely and disconnected from the ones that I loved. It was the start of many changes in my life; I was finally going to get out of the community college that I had been drifting around in for years, Kyle and I were engaged at that point, and it felt like all of adulthood was crashing down on me at once. I spent a lot of time driving around blasting The Red Album, and I think because it was the first album to feature each member of the band on vocals on separate songs, I started to notice how much I appreciated each member of the band. 

No matter the content of the song, Rivers has this angst, this desperation in his voice that is just so convincing to me. Brian has a way of hugging the lyrics with that guitar, and giving them the extra push to make them true. Pat and Scott hammer everything together, sealing the song up in a complete package.