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The Customer Appreciation Event is the one night when Cisco Live attendees hit the “pause” button on their week of learning and networking to blow off steam, let their hair down, and have a little fun.
This
year’s Customer Appreciation Event is shaping up to be a major league party. We’re taking over PETCO Park – home of the San Diego Padres – for a night of food, drink, and big-league entertainment. Get ready to swing for the fences at the one party that nobody in the Cisco Live community wants to miss. Even if you don’t know a backdoor slider from a ground rule double, you’ll have an unforgettable night of fun on the diamond.
The
Cisco Live community has voted, and we heard you loud and clear. We’re proud to announce that one of the bands that consistently tops the list of who you most want to see at the Customer Appreciation Event is this year’s headliner.
Weezer is one of alternative rock’s defining acts. From their debut album in 1994 to today, the band has continued to evolve and draw a passionate following of devoted fans with a diverse and memorable catalog that includes Buddy Holly, Undone – The Sweater Song, Island in the Sun, and Beverly Hills. Weezer has sold more than 10 million albums and has played thousands of shows to date. The band is also renowned for its pioneering use of the Internet to connect with its fan base and its innovative videos. Whether on the stage or in the studio, members Rivers Cuomo, Patrick Wilson, Brian Bell, and Scott Shriner are famous for playing just about anything they can get their hands on. They also make a mean cheese sandwich.
In 1992, Weezer had their first practice session in Los Angeles. Over the course of the next year, the group played the club scene, ultimately scoring a deal with DGC from their demo cassette. To date, they have released nine full-length albums, six EPs, and a DVD, selling over nine million records in the United States.
Their debut album Weezer (aka “The Blue Album”), producer by Ric Ocasek, has been certified triple platinum in the United States, and remains the band’s all-time best seller. Upon completing the record, Weezer went on hiatus temporarily as Cuomo studied at Harvard. With help from the Spike Jonze-directed video, the single “Undone (The Sweater Song)” became a hit in the fall of 1994. But by the time the album’s final single, “Say It Ain’t So,” was released in the summer of 1995, the group had gone on hiatus once again, with Cuomo returning to Harvard.
In 1996 Weezer recorded their sophomore album, Pinkerton. While it failed to become an immediate hit, it was a cult classic with fans (going gold in 2001). In 1997, distressed by the public’s reaction to Pinkerton, the band took time off to regroup and plan its next move, during which time Sharp left the group. While Rolling Stone named Pinkerton the Worst Album of 1996, they later re‐reviewed it and awarded it 5 stars, adding it to the Rolling Stone Hall of Fame in 2004.
With the producer of their debut, Ric Ocasek, again at the helm, Weezer next recorded 2001’s Weezer (aka “The Green Album”), which debuted at #4 and has since sold more than one million copies in the United States. Songs like “Hash Pipe” and “Island in the Sun” became radio and MTV staples. During their tour that summer’s tour, Shriner joined the band.
The band followed that success with Maladroit, which was released in 2002, reached #3 on the Billboard 200, and was certified gold. Two years later, Video Capture Device DVD featured home video footage, music videos, commercials, rehearsals, concert performances, television performances, and band commentary, and was certified “gold” following its 2004 release.
Weezer
returned to the studio again to work with Rick Rubin on their fifth full‐length album. Make Believe appeared in May 2005 and eventually went platinum in multiple countries. The album gave Weezer their biggest charting album peak yet, hitting #1 in Canada and #2 in the U.S. Make Believe featured the band’s first two songs to top the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, “Perfect Situation” and Top 10 single “Beverly Hills,” which earned the band their first Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song.
2008’s Weezer, (aka “The Red Album”) followed which featured a more collaborative approach toward songwriting and shared lead vocals on tracks. Lead single “Pork and Beans” topped the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks charts for 11 weeks, and its music video won a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video. The Red Album debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200 upon its release.
One year later, the band returned with Raditude, which debuted as the seventh best‐selling album of the week on the Billboard 200 chart. It found the band collaborating with hip‐hop producer Jermaine Dupri, rapper Lil Wayne and members of The All‐American Rejects.
Weezer jumped from Geffen to independent label Epitaph in 2010, debuting Hurley at #6 on the Billboard 200 to make it the band’s sixth top 10 album, as well as their sixth top 10 album in a row. The new album was quickly followed by two additional releases: an expanded deluxe edition of Pinkerton and Death to False Metal. The band then took to the road to play Pinkerton & their eponymous debut “Blue Album” in their entirety, in full a tour titled “The Memories Tour,” dubbed “Blinkerton” by fans.
In January 2012, Weezer launched the first ever Weezer Cruise aboard Carnival Cruises. They were joined by 16 other bands including Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh, Wavves, The Antlers, Yuck, and many more. A music‐festival‐at‐sea, Weezer played shows on board and engaged in on‐board activities with cruise goers.
Weezer
www.weezer.comclose bio
You
don’t want to miss the opening act, Zepparella!
Bandmates Clementine, Gretchen Menn, Angeline Saris, and Noelle Doughty pay homage to the classic Led Zeppelin catalogue with a sound that’s completely and uniquely their own. Their passion shows through in the respect they pay to the original tunes and the fresh approach that has helped crowds everywhere rediscover what they love about one of rock-and-roll’s defining groups. This isn’t your father’s Zeppelin tribute band.
Read Zepparella’s full biography
How to honor the legacy of a band deemed sacred? To tread on holy ground is perilous, and must be done with the intent and spirit of a disciple—Pay attention to the intricacies of the magic, explore the far ends of the innovation, strive for ever-growing ability, and let the purity of the love for the music drive it all.
Drummer
Clementine is the founding member of ZEPPARELLA. From the beginning of her musical career, her goal has been to be onstage every night. The pursuit of that goal has led Clementine to constantly tour the US and Europe in projects as diverse as Bottom, AC/DShe, The House Of More, The Solid, Francis Bakin, and Stars Turn Me On. She tackles the best rock drumming ever written with her own emotionally powerful style, bringing the Motown influence of the Bonham groove to the forefront. The profound musical connection established with Gretchen Menn (guitar), Angeline Saris (bass), and Noelle Doughty (vocals) creates the bond required to do this great music justice.
It was under the tutelage of classical guitarist Phillip DeFremery, a student of Andrés Segovia, that guitarist Gretchen Menn began her path on the instrument. Playing with tireless passion and constantly seeking out new challenges, her projects are often unconventional, genre-bending expressions combining elements of classical, rock, progressive, jazz, and metal. On influences, Gretchen has never tired of her initial inspirations—Eric Johnson, Steve Morse, Frank Zappa, and Jeff Beck. But she has loved Jimmy Page’s guitar playing longer than she has played the guitar. It was through the music of Led Zeppelin that she found a gateway into music that resonated deeply with her, creating a love for guitar-oriented music, and, ultimately, the guitar.

Bassist Angeline Saris has musical passions that span jazz to speed metal, R&B to rock, Cuban to hip-hop, and flamenco to rockabilly. Angeline has done it all – and does it extremely well. It is this versatility, her rock-solid time, tastefully crafted bass lines, and unequivocal skills that give her the ability to bring cohesion to the eclectic Zeppelin catalog. Angeline credits John Paul Jones as a main influence, so it is no surprise that she shines as she interprets his thunder.
Finally, singer Noelle Doughty has found her way back to where she started, with a passion for Led Zeppelin’s music that was developed from as far back as she can remember, as the little sister in the room with the rocking older brothers. The kid who knew every word to every song has worked in classic rock cover bands, jazz bands, funk bands, and yet never lost her true love for Zeppelin. After moving to the West Coast from New York State, her fortuitous meeting with Gretchen Menn backstage at a Robert Plant concert brought the final puzzle piece to the Zepparella family. Noelle’s clear and powerful style and deep understanding of the emotional content of these great songs make the picture complete.
Now more than ever, Zepparella explores their own improvised magic within the framework of Zeppelin’s mighty songs!
Zepparella
www.zepparella.com
band@zepparella.comclose bio
Eclectic
Method have long been at the forefront of visual-audio music production and performance. Since their beginnings in London in 2001, EM have toured the world with their live kinetic video DJ show. Their output most infamously includes cutting and re-composing video and audio clips from music videos, film, TV, video games, into new forms of visual meta-pop mania. It’s all too easy to call EM’s work “mashup,” yet with the real-time narrative, visceral culture smashing and twisted, witty sense of humor, the Method is more transmedia hurricane then DJ or producer.
EM is the quintessential artist of the digital generation.
Cisco Live has been one of the best conferences that I have, and will continue to, attend for IT. The technical information provided by sessions is first class. Cisco knows how to take care of attendees with an excellent conference overall.
- 2011 Cisco Live attendee


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