THE WEEZER SHOW!

Sunday night, Jason and I went on a date. First we ate at P.F. Chang's and then we went to the Broomfield Event Center to see Weezer.

We missed the first opening band, Tokyo Police Club. Unfortunately, we were in time for Angels and Airwaves, which we disliked. They were very melodramatic and the songs were way too long. I did like three things:
1) the singer's stance was usually a deep lunge, with his back to the audience.
2) He sang a very romantic love song to the drummer, getting right in the guy's face.
3) They had one fan who did interpretive dance the whole time, embarrassing her friend or sister so much that they didn't even stay for Weezer. She was the only one standing up in our section. She waved her arms dramatically, threw her hair around, pointed at YOU and YOU and YOU and YOU, did some high kicks, did a lot of partial backbends, draped herself over the handrail, and did a lot of big clapping. I was glad I wasn't right by her, because someone could have gotten hurt. But I was really glad I could see her because she was the most entertaining part of Angels and Airwaves.

Some bad things:
1) way too many strobe lights! It was really obnoxious!
2) the singer had on those jeans that are super baggy in the butt and crotch, but skin tight in the thighs and calves. I don't like them.
3) their music is cheesy.
4) the singer dragged their performance out EVEN longer by telling some lame story about a 6th grade sleepover. He was so disappointed that no one cared. If you are a star, people will listen to anything you say, but if you are just a Joe Schmo, your stories have to be INTERESTING (which is not the same thing as telling it in a dramatic stage whisper)

The crowd was so filled with nerds, just like you might imagine! There were a few hipster-looking people, and I saw one punk couple, but mostly it was nerds. Oh, all the asics and new balance sneakers worn in public! Oh, all guys looked they last got a haircut 4 months ago. Oh, all the glasses! It was pretty cute. We didn't feel old at all. There were some children there, but most people seemed to be around our age.

Finally, Weezer came on! The four guys all took turns singing, which surprised us. We thought Rivers Cuomo always sang. Their voices were fairly similar, so it's possible that they all sing on the albums. On the other hand, Rivers's voice was pretty scratchy, so maybe they were just giving him a break. Also, they like to mix things up on the road, so maybe that was all it was.


They started out in white jumpsuits, and I asked Jason, "shouldn't they be wearing RED jumpsuits, since it's the Red Album?" And sure enough, they peeled off the white ones and had red ones on underneath.

Rivers is pretty much a giant spaz. He wore knee pads so that he could slide on his knees over and over again. He had a little trampoline (rebounder) on stage so he could jump on it and jump off of it. When he jumped, he played guitar really off-beat since he wasn't jumping on the beat. He also played with a soccer ball while playing guitar.

They played all the songs we wanted to hear: The Sweater Song, Buddy Holly, Say it Ain't So, Troublemaker, Pink Triangle. I'm sure I'm forgetting some. There were a few songs we didn't recognize.

They took a break and put on their record, on a record player onstage. Then they came out, kicked the player over, and sang a Nirvana cover (Silver).

The show was really busy, with stage hands rushing out constantly to change their guitars, over and over. They switched instruments, like Rivers played drums and the drummer played guitar a few times. They let that cheesy singer from Angels and Airwaves and their drummer come out and do a couple songs with them. The drummer did a good job, but you already know how I feel about that singer. Jason said he ruined The Sweater Song.

Near the end, something really cool happened. It's going to sound pretty cheesy, but it was kind of moving for me. They brought out about 30 local musicians: guitars, drums, double bass, cellos, violins, flute, oboe or clarinet (too far away to tell), trumpet, tuba, trombone. They all got onstage and played two songs with the band! The songs were Island in the Sun and Beverly Hills. They also had the audience sing parts of the songs: "Hip, Hip" for Island in the Sun (you may remember this song from a movie starring Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen! When I was in college, a girl in one of my classes was SO angry at Weezer for letting those twins use their song in their cheesy movie.) For Beverly Hills, the men were supposed to sing "Beverly Hills! That's where I long to be!" and the women were supposed to sing, "Gimmee Gimmee! Gimmee Gimmee!" I didn't like to sing that part, so I didn't. Anyway, it was just a pretty cool experience. The musicians did awesome, especially the oboe or clarinet solo. We were all part of making the songs together, which is sort of the point of concerts: to share an experience with a huge crowd of people. I haven't felt like that for a long time. It made me think of this art experiment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QVQSZA9zSk