Zebrahead A Concert Review	September 8, 2000 The Metro Chicago, IL A Review by The Dude on the Right

When I was asked if I wanted to see Zebrahead, my first thought was "Who?" After I pondered the offer a little, I then thought "Sure, what the hell, I’m all up for new things" and decided to go. It was after saying "Yes" that I remembered my #1 rule about seeing shows at The Metro in Chicago, especially shows that I am iffy to go and see in the first place – check the Cub’s schedule. You see, parking around The Metro is hit and miss anyway, but on the same day as a Cub’s game – forget it, especially a night game when just about every city street is off limits. I checked, sure enough there was a game, but it was a day game so there was a chance things would work out.

So I’m in a crappy mood the afternoon of the show, coming up with every bad scenario – no parking, no place to sit, hundreds of punk kids, and me might as well being some of these kid’s dad and having them look at me like "Who is the old fart?". I finally hop in the dude-mobile and make my way up Lake Shore Drive in rush hour traffic, turn on the Cub’s game and find the boys losing with a couple of innings to go. I think to myself "Self, if this goes well the game will wrap up just as I get to Wrigleyville and my stretch of parking spaces might open up just as I get there." I’m getting closer, the Cub’s are threatening to tie (which would have just sucked), and as I turn the corner the Cub’s finally blow the game, but I’m now too close for the crowd to be heading to their cars yet. As I head towards one of the few areas I’ll be able to park without a city sticker permit thing I see a spot down the road and low and behold, some asshole two cars in front of me gets the spot. "Alright, it’s still early. Let’s circle a couple of times before giving up hope." And I do. Turn a corner, turn a corner, turn a corner, and I see it open up, a dude pulls out but I’m a few cars back. "Please, please, please! Let no one take that spot." And you know what? No one did! It was 6:05 PM, I got the choice spot I wanted, and headed to The Metro hoping the youngins would be late and I could find a chair (of which there are like maybe 25 chairs if you get there early enough – maybe I am an old fart?).

I go to get my ticket, there was some slight hesitating in finding it, the nice girl asks if I needed the photo pass to which I said "No" (yea, I know, shirking my photo duties, but the lighting at The Metro usually sucks, I really wanted a spot to sit, and tonight the lights sucked as usual), and she looks at me and says "It’s going to be mostly kids here. Here, have a pass for the guest section." I smiled, graciously said "Thank you!" because I knew my seating problem was now solved (to which I also got a complex later under the "am I getting that old that the nice girl figures I would want a place to sit down with the older folks?" theory – but I still took the pass), and headed to the wide open guest section and got a killer seat.

So I’m there really early, I’ve got an hour to kill before Wheatus takes the stage, and I sit there reflecting back on how well things have gone so far – I just hope the bands are entertaining. Then came Wheatus.

Wheatus
Wheatus, at first, didn’t do anything for me. You had your drummer (Peter Brown), singer/guitarist (Brendan Brown), bass (Mike McCabe), and extra percussion dude (Phil Jimenez). That’s all fine and dandy, but the only one on stage who even showed any energy was Phil the percussion dude. Looking kind of crazy, getting that bug-eyed look at times, he had it going on. But the other boys just weren’t into it, at least not yet. Sure, most of the people in the crowd could have cared less if they were there, as was prevalent from the early shouts of "You suck" and "Zebrahead" chants, but dudes in the band, you’ve got to keep trying – it just took too long.

As their set moved along, slowly the crowd came around, and I saw why – the early songs in the set list were a little more moody and down than the crowd seemed to want, and with the Brendan not showing any energy, well, the crowd reacted as angry teenagers will – "You suck." But then he started to venture away from the mike, then the music started to get a little more pumped up, and the crowd really came around, even kicking off a mosh-pit and I thought to myself "What the hell took you guys so long to start playing."

So my final thoughts on Wheatus are these. They’ve got potential, but I would suggest instead of getting pissed off at the people who are grumbling, concentrate on those that are coming around. Also, think about shifting your set list around. Hit the crowd heavy early, mix in some more of the moody stuff in the middle, and kick it back into high gear at the end. It just took too long for them to play and have fun. And, oh yea, keep bribing the crowd with plastic fruit shaker things – that seemed to be working well. It’s One "Potential For The Next Level" Thumb Up!

Where'd They Come From?
While concentrating on Wheatus I didn’t notice too many things around me, but as Wheatus ended their set I took a quick look around me. Out of the corner of my eye it occurred to me: "Wow, she’s pretty smokin’!" "If Zebrahead has these kind of groupies, well, more power to them." Then as I turned my head a little more, well, there was another, and another, and all of a sudden I’m seeing about five really, well, hot ladies. It also occurred to me, as I looked at the crowd below, that even though most of them were young, there were a lot of girls in the crowd, and it was then that I scribbled "I really wish I were in a band." Well, one of the girls near me turned a little, I saw an all-too familiar bunny rabbit, and it occurred to me "Oh yea, ‘Playmate of the Year’ is one of Zebrahead’s songs, now I get why they're here." But I still figured it was good to be in a band.

As I slyly turned every now and then to get a better look at the beautiful world around me, with the sounds of Iron Maiden blasting in the background during the set-change, I still wondered about Zebrahead. The name rang a bell, I didn’t really know any of their songs, and just hoped they would turn this night, which in the afternoon looked very bleak, into a whole helluva lotta fun. I can now say that Zebrahead is one of my new favoritist bands.

Zebrahead
The lights go off, the crowd goes nuts, and the boys of Zebrahead take the stage. Justin Mauriello is the front man and he has every action, from singing to just an overwhelming stage presence, down pat. Musically it was a cool mix, kind of the punk sound with harmonies and smooth guitar work intermixed with white boy rap. They’re touring in support of the album I forgot before I saw the ladies, "Playmate of the Year", and the songs just have such a fun feel to them that if you don’t have a good time at their show, you must just be too old. I lost that old feeling and just had a good time.

Song-wise, at the time of the show, well, I didn’t know any of them so forgive my wrong research if it comes to be in error. I’m pretty sure they opened with, "Go", at least from my notes of the "see it, believe it" song, and from the onset the mosh-pit started flying, the folks started surfin’, and it was just a party for the next hour plus some. Justin brought two dudes and a chick on stage for a contest for a t-shirt, a lap dance contest which had the one girl leading the pack until the one dude did a striptease (I still don’t know how he won – maybe because he could take his shirt off and not get in trouble), and again I was amazed at the amount of girls in love with these guys because, well, and don’t take this wrong, but these guys are no Ricky Martin. Anyway, as the blasting of punk and rap continued, Justin said how they were just so excited to be opening for 311. I looked at this band, looked at the crowd, and said to myself "Soon, very soon, they won’t be opening for 311, they’ll be the headliner!" They have that much potential.

Continuing on we got some way-excellent guitar work by Greg Bergdorf, well, except for when he screwed up the Poison cover and Justin had the crowd yell "Greg is a dick!", we got to see Ed Udhus on drums showing his talent - drinking while drumming, we had a way-too-close cover of some Third Eye Blind (you guys are getting too good at it, almost really sounding like them – please stop!), and probably the best version of some Spice Girls I have heard in years. And of course there were some of their own songs, like "Subtract You" and "In My Room."

And Zebrahead pulled a great stunt, kinda like Dick Dale only different, when the show was rapping up by saying "Good night Chicago!" and then just turning right around and continuing with what they called the fastest encore. They skipped the leaving the stage crap – you know that band is always coming back anyway - and proceeded to acknowledge that we’re all lesbians as he introduced Amy and Nichole from Playboy before the band kicked into "Playmate of the Year." Justin also showed why it’s great to be in a band as he made all of the girls scream before "I’m Money." And as Justin stage-dived into the crowd, I knew it was true – I went towards the wrong profession! Music is where the ladies are, and why didn’t I think of the song "Playmate of the Year?"

So the show ends, the lights come up as Cartman’s version of "Come Sail Away" blares through the speakers, and I simply wrote on my scratch pad "It’s TWO ‘WHAT A FUCKIN’ KICK-ASS AND FUN BAND’ THUMBS UP!" Such I say is Zebrahead.

So, you see, sometimes things just don’t end up like you figure they would. I expected hell and instead I got: A kick-ass parking spot; A kick-ass seat to see the show; Some 5ish Playmates around me (although my job kind of sucks because I had to pay attention to the band and not hit on the ladies, and although they introduced themselves on stage as Nichole and Amy from the October issue of Playboy, after I checked my, I mean my friend’s issue, I wasn’t sure – guess I should have looked at their faces more), and I got to see a band kicked into the Dude On the Right’s favoritist list. That band is Zebrahead.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!