SCREECHING FEEDBACK COLUMN: Weezer gives double the fun at shows
By Jim Morris
When it comes to tales of heartache, distorted guitar sing-alongs, dorky attire, and songs about half-Japanese girls I’ll always take two instead of one.
So when Weezer’s long-awaited sweep of the United States came to my attention, I swallowed the cost of two tickets; I saw no danger of an overdose with Weezer.
My two nights of air guitar imitations and moshpit aversion techniques were Friday March 9
th at the Aragon in Chicago and Saturday March 10th at the Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee.Opening for Weezer were two bands: Ozma and The Get-Up Kids. Ozma is a punk-style band with a very talented lead guitar player who added intricate guitar parts to the bands generally heavier sound. The Get-Up kids are a well-known, high-energy punk band from Kansas. In fact, for the second night they even brought out the Lead singer and the guitar player from Cheap Trick as special guests.
The stage for the Weezer set was designed to look like a high school prom complete with streamers, a disco ball, bleachers on both sides of the stage, and above the bleachers, basketball hoops which also doubled as projector screens for live footage of the show and various images to fit the themes of each song.
The meaning behind this weird set theme was never explained to the audience; but I would guess that Rivers Cuomo (lead singer, guitar player, songwriting mastermind, and helpless romantic) was making a nostalgic reference to his loss of teenage love and ambition.
This Weezer tour is a promotion of their long-awaited third album scheduled to hit stores May 15
th. But, although this is a promotion tour, Weezer did not play many new and inevitably unfamiliar songs.The new songs they did play were "You Gave Your Love to Me Softly", "Christmas Song", "Island in the Sun", and an unique and eerie number for Weezer entitled "Hash Pipe". These new songs seem to keep with Cuomo’s songwriting theme of love-related anxiety and odd social behavior.
The rest of the set was packed with Weezer’s numerous hits from their first two albums. Such wonders as: "My Name is Jonas", "El Scorcho", "The Good Life", "Tired of Sex", "Say it Ain’t So", "Buddy Holly", "Sweater Song", and "Why Bother?".
The crowd loved these familiar sounds and banged incessantly with the band’s playfully animated guitar player, Brian Bell, as the first chords to each tune rang out. At the opening of the band’s early 90’s hit song "Buddy Holly" a giant red, white and blue lighted Weezer sign was lowered; adding to the colorful set design. But the band’s sideshow effects did not stop there.
During the band’s encore performance of their mellow number "Only in Dreams", the disco ball was lowered and lit up casting rays of dance fever across the audience.
This melodic tune was immediately followed by the distinctively heavier "Surf Wax America". This song contains an interlude in which the music stops except for the band’s harmonizing vocals and soft cymbal taps; but then the guitar’s distortion gradually fades in and hits an eruptive heavy note that sends the crowd back into convulsions.
Just as these convulsions began an array of red confetti exploded from above the stage and descended upon the audience successfully ending the show on a high note.
The second night was identical to the first; everything from songs and set design to Cuomo’s comments between jams. But as disappointing as this could have been, the repetition of shows did serve to imbed this wacked-out Weezer weekend in my mind.