As a music lover and college student there often comes the time when one must make the painstaking decision whether to journey to see a concert or not. When and what music makes it worth it to trek away from Ithaca and give college a pass?

During my time at Cornell, I have continually decided that my longing to see a potentially life-changing concert never outweighed my desire for an evening or weekend of plain old college-style memory making. My repeated logic was that college only comes around for four years in a lifetime, and bands inevitably tour for decades (of course there are exceptions, but for the most part they do). So, it has come to be that no band, no festival and no comeback tour has ever made my idea of skipping out on one of my numbered college nights worth the hassle of traveling farther than Castaways to see a show. So I never did.

I have no regrets, as Ithaca has a beautiful music scene all its own. But that’s not to say that I wouldn’t have loved to see The Foo Fighters in Binghamton my sophomore year or attend CMJ last week in New York City. But for better or for worse, I didn’t want to go to those shows THAT much. Then, on Sep. 29 I received the e-mail that flushed my firm stance on staying local with my concert-going down the toilet.

Weezer’s Webmaster, Karl, informed me (along with everyone on the Weezer list serve) that my beloved nerd-rockers, whom I may or may not have partially written my college acceptance essay about, would be playing the reasonably-sized Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on a Saturday night. I had no prelims following the date. I was sold.

Let me digress ... I’ve seen Weezer more times than I can remember, but not in recent memory. The last time I saw them live was over four years ago, when I blissfully attended two back-to-back nights of the Weez at Roseland Ballroom as a youthful junior in high school. They’ve hit up the Northeast quite a few times since then, but either because of my ridiculous Cornell work load or my not wanting to skimp on my college fun, I never went. But unlike other concerts that piqued my interest in the last three years, the only ones I have ever seriously entertained the thought of attending were Weezer shows.

Why? Well, in case you’ve never heard me gush about Weezer in person, let me just lay the groundwork that I’m one of those people who LOVES them. I love them in the way that only a wife could love a husband who chews loudly and makes deathly smelling farts. By this I mean that despite their last few albums being musically atrocious, I am still head over heels for every piece of crap they release and disguise with clever music videos (see below for my more positive thoughts on their newest album, which is out today). Their first three albums –– The Blue Album, Pinkerton and The Green Album –– all resonated with me so greatly as a teenager (and still do today) that I don’t think I’ll ever fall out of love with them. It is for this reason that I’m willing to break my locality rule to spend 10 hours of this upcoming weekend on a bus traveling to see them.

Did you catch that — the whole “this weekend” part? Yes, that’s right, I’m sacrificing my last Halloween as a college student to see Weezer. I’m going against all of my decrees and, as a result, I will miss the skanked-up sorostitutes, the naked dude-bros and hands down one of the finest nights of debauchery Cornell has to offer, all in order to see Scott, Brian, Pat and Rivers make music that I can do nothing but adore. And for the record: Up there on the list of things I love, right next to Weezer, is Halloween.

So this is an exceptionally serious decision I have made. No matter how many times I ponder the pros and cons of this predicament, I don’t think I’ll ever know if I have chosen wisely. But at least this past Saturday I was able to take one step closer to assurance when a friend forwarded me the magical link to Weezer’s newest and seventh album, Ratidude –– out today!

After three thorough listens, I can say with confidence that I genuinely enjoy album number seven. To ruthless fans of the band I will qualify the aforementioned statement by saying this: Raditude is an easy listen and the songs are the most well-crafted rock-pop from the Weezer camp yet, but it’s not the Weezer-Weezer that changed your life. On the other hand, it’s good enough that I’m no longer considering putting my Halloween tickets up on Craigslist and I’m fully committed to an Allhallows evening of hearing the album live. Heck, the fourth track, “Can’t Stop Partying,” features Lil Wayne! It’s hard to hate on an album that features a collaboration between two Weezes.

So, with this optimistic outlook, it seems that seeing my all time favorite band playing a pretty small venue in support of an album I really enjoy is what it takes to get me away from campus for 24 hours — even as my precious Cornell days quickly slip away. But what about you, Cornell community: What concert would make it worth it for you to miss out on a night or weekend at school? And while you’re busy thinking about that, would it also be too much to ask that if you’re staying on campus this weekend, could you do me the huge favor of just not having fun or you know, just not celebrating Halloween?

It would be much appreciated!