Pete and Newski in Jersey 2017
Pete and Newski in Philly 2018
The Figgs co-founder Pete Donnelly sits in with Brett Newski to discuss career highlights and lowlights of the 90's and early 2000's: opening for U2, being on the Weezer Blue Album tour in 94’, playing bass in Soul Asylum, Graham Parker, working with Train, anxiety around late night TV appearances, being signed to a major label.
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More on Pete: https://www.petedonnellymusic.com/
Pete and Newski in Neenah WI circa 2014
Pete Donnelly and Brett Newski circa 2015
EXCERPT:
Brett: What was going on the first Weezer tour like?
Pete: That was exciting. We were really revved up, just loving being on the road and playing. We were kind of out to destroy, as far as our energy goes. And Weezer is kind of, they were good sometimes, but they weren’t a particularly great live band. They didn’t have that iconic status at all at the time, they had just released their first single, so people were literally walking out after they were playing “The Sweater Song”
Brett: Wow!
Pete: But, on the other hand, they had so much buzz that nearly every show was sold out, if not every show. And they were pretty open to us. We got along well with the band, they were cool to us.
Brett: So you went in there with a mindset of “we’re going to mop the floors with these guys every night”?
Pete: *laughs* No, but for us, once you plug in and start playing, we can’t help it, something takes over.
Brett: It’s okay to admit that. I think any band would say the same, it’s this form of primal emotion that we have as musicians, where you are friends with these guys, but you think, “I’m gonna fuckin’ mop the floor with them if we can.”
Pete: And when you're skinny dudes like us, you really can’t mop the floor with anyone until you get a guitar in your hand. It really changes things.
Brett: You’re getting dunked on until you get the Telecaster.
Pete: That’s right.
Brett: And you had this funny story on how Rivers wasn’t fulfilling his contract most nights? Tell me about that, that’s hilarious.
Pete: Well there was one night in particular...well, Rivers wasn’t that socially interactive. You know what I mean? We were sharing a dressing room, and he wasn’t a dick about it ever to us, he was never a dick, but he was in his own world.
And you know how dressing rooms are. The chairs that you sit in are disgusting, and it’s cold and dirty, you're in the basement of some club under the bass bins, and we’re sitting down there after our show, and Rivers comes and plops in some puke-green arm chair that’s got cigarette burns in it, and his road manager comes down there and is like, “Rivers! Rivers! You gotta play for 45 minutes! You gotta fulfill our contract or we won’t get paid!”
And he’s just sitting there, like, “But I don’t wanna!”
Brett: *laughs* Love it!
Pete: “I don’t wanna!”
Brett: The man has had it!
Pete: After forty minutes. But they only had a 45 minute set. They didn’t have other songs at that point.
Brett: Yeah, like ten songs, that album’s only 33 minutes long or something.
Pete: Maybe they played a couple of covers, or a new song, but they didn’t have a lot of history as a band, not a lot to stretch out.
Brett: Well I love that story, I feel I’ve told that to a few people at this point. It’s so funny to hear about people walking out on WEEZER. One of the most influential rock bands of all time, having seen them before they found their stride and became swept up in pop culture.
Pete: I think that goes for all the most iconic bands at the time. People were not getting them. Like Led Zeppelin getting panned all the time, or John Coltraine playing his heart out to six people in the audience. Greatest jazz musician of all time, but at the same time people are like, “Huh? What? Well I gotta go.”
Brett: I kind of gives you hope, that you gotta stay in the game,you know?
Pete: How many times have you heard that, Brett?
Brett: Well I just tell myself that on repeat. Even if it’s false *laughs*.
