Get Up Kids' Matt Pryor Calls Weezer 'Jackasses'
- Posted on Oct 2nd 2009 3:00PM by Dan Reilly
- Comments (6)
For the 10th anniversary reissue of their landmark album, 'Something to Write Home About,' the Get Up Kids compiled years of archival footage for a bonus DVD. Among the many highlights is a scene where the Kansas City punks took part in the time-honored rock tradition of smashing their equipment to bits. "That was the last date of the 2001 tour we did opening for Weezer," frontman Matt Pryor tells Spinner. "We just smashed all of our s---. It seemed like a fun thing to do at the time."The decimation of the instruments wasn't as wanton as it might seem. "Oh, it was totally planned, like 'Top that, bitch!'" says Pryor. "It was very Jerry Lee Lewis of us." Surprisingly, the stunt got no reaction from Rivers Cuomo and his bandmates. In fact, Weezer never reacted to anything the Get Up Kids did. "They never said anything to us for that entire tour," Pryor recalls. "They're the only band I've toured with for a month that I've never spoken to. They're jackasses."
Pryor also recalls a night in Milwaukee, where the Get Up Kids and Weezer were playing, when, for unknown reasons, Weezer declined to share the stage with two rock legends. "The guys in Cheap Trick [Robin Zander and Rick Nielsen] were in town playing the Enormo Dome and their kids are fans of ours and fans of Weezer. [Cheap Trick] asked Weezer if they wanted to play a song together, they said no and we were like 'Yeah! We'll do it!'" he recalls. "We did 'Hello There' and 'Surrender.' Rick Nielsen borrowed a guitar from Weezer -- this really beautiful Les Paul Custom -- and he just handed it out to the crowd when he was done with it."
Though the Get Up Kids got to keep all their instruments, they did lose out on one thing to Zander and Nielsen's kids. "They hung out backstage and drank all of our beer," Pryor says, noting that he didn't know how old the kids were. "Then their dads came down and yelled at them, 'You guys, get in the limo!'"
See? Even rock star dads can lay down the law from time to time.





Reader Comments(1 of 1)
LArry johnsonat 10-02-2009
Weezer is too good of a band for you sorry ass musicians, aslo back in the day they were jerks but better now.
PGFat 10-02-2009
Weezer a good band? Better now than they were back in the day? Not Jerks? What Alt/Emo/Indy black hole did you fall out of kid? And better than the Get Up Kids? With a comment like that, you probably weren't even born before pinkerton came out.
Lankuuat 10-02-2009
Since when does when somebody was born effect their ability to appreciate music?! It's not like as time goes by, the songs change the way the sound! It's elitist pricks like you that make anybody who's younger not want to have anything to do with Weezer.
I don't fucking get why somebody being younger prevents them from liking a band. Go to hell.
(Get Up Kids suck ass.)
Chris Kashinoat 10-19-2009
The Get Up Kid are a much better band than Weezer!!! The only good shit Weezer ever did was the first two albums... and they werent even that good they were just catchy. Every Get Up Kids album is amazing, hands down. Fuck Rivers he's an arrogant D bag. Just cause he's famous and has like 3 degrees dosent make him better then the rest of us. haha
Austinat 10-20-2009
The debate can go for days on for days for who is at fault for this. I feel like Rivers was a lot different back then and he responded that he wants to apologize about this. Anyways I was on facebook the other day and found this really great Weezer contest. All you have to do is take a picture wearing a sweater and holding up a sign and you can win tickets to see Weezer at a private show in NYC. How great would it be to see them at such a small palce when they are such a big band. For more info go to: http://tinyurl.com/weezertixcontest. Definitely check it out because it is going to be amazing!
anonat 12-07-2009
The frontman for weezer is forty years old? ok? weird. As per the other stuff, I don't care, and neither should you. Led Zeppelin is better than both of them, but I don't care about that either. Naybe weezer thought their genre was not the same, so decided not to play with them. The kids getting drunk is wrong, but I would have done it. Hmm. A conundrum. They could be jackasses. I don't know and I don't care, and how did I land on this page?