By Imogen Brown
and Peter Brown
Weezer is, at best, a rocking dad band (pre-1996) and at worst, a gimmicky threat to the spirit of nerdy dude rock (no one asked for a recorded cover of Toto’s “Africa”). My dad and I had the chance to see Weezer live at the Toyota Center on September 28th– it’s almost as if they knew the Rice dads would be showing out en masse for parent’s weekend! I am interspersing my thoughts with his in this review (his are in Italics). It’s only right that Weezer’s dad rock demographic gets to say their piece.
From the start, Weezer slammed us over the head with their tour theme: space. They opened their set with a five minute long “countdown intro” that might have retained more hype had it only been sixty seconds. The intro - which was meant to be ironic - was drawn out too long. Get on with it already. Not sure about the whole space motif. Seemed random. I preferred the Buddy Holly/Happy Days/Al’s Diner motif when we saw them at Jones Beach, Long Island. That’s right, this was our second time seeing Weezer – the first being in New Jersey in 2018. Ah.. a time before teal album-gate and the catastrophe of the SZNS series. At Jones Beach, they had a jolly 1950s vibe (that still failed to outshine the raw, awesome grit and grime of the Pixies opener). It was less nerdy and less aggressively themed than Voyage to the Blue Planet. However, there is something to be said for commitment to the bit.
The set was broken up into three segments: 1) post-1996 songs that many fans tolerate, 2) cult classics off of Weezer’s second studio album Pinkerton and 3) the entirety of Weezer, the blue album. The first segment paid homage to hits like “Pork and Beans” and “Beverly Hills," which Dad and I BELTED in long car rides growing up. “Perfect Situation” is the song of my generation. The transition between each segment was transcendentally geeky; the Pinkerton segment was introduced by a large, animated Weezer “W” with glasses that proclaimed that the “space ship” had reached the “Pinkerton asteroid belt,” to crazed audience screams. Cue “Why Bother?” a classic Pinkerton track filled with 90s angst and relationship ennui. I thought the vocals were a little garbled. The dude with the gray beard rocking out next to me was awesome and loving it. In my opinion, the Pinkerton section of the night was a smashing success. The crowd was in UPROAR at the transition to the blue album, which Weezer played all the way through chronologically. Dad and I knew every single word.
In short, Weezer shows are true theater. A corny, awesome time was had by all.