Getting old with Weezer

First, I’ve never written a concert review before. In fact, I hardly have ever read them. The gist of them seems simple enough, so I’m going to try one.

One thing I think most published reviewers don’t talk about is the $ factor; after all, they don’t have to pay for the tickets. I once went to a Leslie Nielson play about Clarence Darrow. All I had to do was call up the ticket office, told them I was writing for a magazine and they left a free ticket at the pick up window for me. The show was great (to me) because the only other thing I was going to be able to do that night for free was go for a walk. So I think most reviews should begin with the reviewer stating how much (or if) they paid for the ticket.

My opinion (and I believe yours) of any show would change vastly if I paid nothing for it versus if I paid $100 for it. If I paid $500 for a ticket, I’d be expecting to get a ride home by one of the band members but that’s neither here nor there. So with that caveat, my beautiful wife bought us tickets for Weezer as a Valentine’s Day gift.  We had a rule about not buying presents on Valentine’s but she broke it and spent $77 and that’s another different topic altogether. To the show!

We drove down to Penticton on concert night, musically cramming up on Weezer’s Blue Album and my 2nd favourite, the Red Album. We wondered what their first song would be and what would be their last, as that is always a fun game. Something new? Hash Pipe? Their iconic Buddy Holly? My Name is Jonas was a top contender. We followed the herd to the SOEC and found our seats with minimal fuss. 

It started with the Flatliners, a decent opening band to the opening band. My only memorable thoughts were their logo (an angry looking wolf head with tongue hanging out, pierced by two diagonal swords) could have used some work. Was it a live wolf? Is that why it looked so angry? Was it supposed to be dead or did the band really just like Game of Thrones? I had no idea. They were good but they also got me thinking they needed something to tie them more together; something like the Beatles in their 3 piece suits. Or even just hats or matching T-shirts. I don’t know, something to make them seem just a bit more than a garage band who won a contest to open for Weezer.

They all wore other band's T-shirts which made them legit

Googling Trews and hats gave me this.
Piano player missing. 

Then it was The Trews turn and we must have some telepathic link as four out of five of them were wearing hats! The Trews are from Nova Scotia and there was some name recognition there. I remembered some songs when I heard them couldn’t name them. My wife knew a few more than me. They also had a tambourine/piano man which brought up another recent conversation I had about how tambourines don’t get enough credit. 

Non sequitor part of review; I once had a dream of walking into a gun store and walking out with a tambourine. Those two stories don’t really connect, other than perhaps it’s a lesson that instead of buying a gun when you are angry or depressed, you should consider getting a tambourine.

One song of theirs in particular blew my mind; Paranoid Freak. It was the best song I heard all night, with a groovy little piano hook that really accented why they were wearing fedoras. I can't really explain why I loved it so much but seriously, I knew when I was home I was going to be looking it up on Youtube. Sadly, the song was way better live than the official video which happens to star that guy you can’t quite place but know from somewhere (answer - Rogers commercials). The Trews ended with a thank you to Weezer and they disappeared to be replaced by the stage crew who dismantled their drum set and moved speakers, just as they did for the Flatliners before them. 

Now for the main act; Weezer! First, I have to say it was funny to see that as the night wore on, the drummer’s kits kept getting higher. By the time Weezer came on, their drummer was 1/2 way to the rafters and had to climb a set of steps to get to his kit.

Then the lights dimmed. The cheering started. Time to settle our big question; What was the first song going to be? Answer...

Hash Pipe. It was simply awesome. The chugging guitar riff, the crowd cheering, dancing and singing along with the 'Whoa ooh'. Everyone was in harmony, in the moment, yelling for our Hash Pipes. Then that was followed by My Name is Jonas, another fun sing-a-long. River Cuomo was wearing a yellow sweater so you knew The Sweater Song was also going to be played eventually. By the way, he’s a fairly short guy (5'6"). Not that it matters but it was interesting nonetheless; videos keep everyone pretty uniformly the same size. He didn’t interact at all with the audience, unlike the first two bands who kept yelling out Penticton! as a cue for the house lights to turn on and for us to yell back ‘woooooo!’. The long-haired Weezer guitarist did request for someone to shut off a TV in the back that was within his eyeline. He called it quite rude and made him feel like he was playing in a bar. 99% of us had no idea what or who he was talking to. The only TVs we could see were the ones above the concessions.   

Most of their concert consisted of the Blue Album (sadly missing was ‘In My Garage’, another personal favourite) with their well-known radio hits (Island in the Sun, Hash Pipe, Pork and Beans and Beverly Hills) but I don’t recall any from the Red album, which sucked for me but I get it; stick to the well. There was a medley of songs in the middle and then they left the stage without playing Buddy Holly so we all knew that was going to be their final song of the night. 

Now, I hate encores. When I first started going to concerts, I honestly believed it was through the power of our cheering which brought them back on for a few more songs. Now, it's so scripted there is no point in being the middle man; if the house lights don't come on, they're coming back. I recall a Collective Soul concert where they had three encores, not because they were exceptionally great, only because nobody turned on the house lights so we could leave. I believe it’s a large Pavlovian experiment to stoke musical egos and make us feel we are getting out money’s worth.

So that said, I did appreciate how when they came back on stage River pointedly stated this was their final song before launching into the song that launched them; Buddy Holly. The song ended and they all took a bow together under their winged W logo and disappeared. The house lights came on the moment the last Weezer hit the curtain. Before most of us got our coats on, they were already breaking down the stage.

To me, the show was a solid $50 worth out of $77. Again, not that I know much about what concerts are worth these days. I left slightly disappointed I didn’t hear any of their newer songs which I think should be better appreciated by the band and listeners as a whole. But I am grateful that I spent it with a lovely woman at my side who knew despite my cynicism, the night was priceless.