Weezer & Ozma

Ozma said it was the first time they had played outside of their hometown, Pasadena. They must have brought a pretty large following with them since people in the crowd kept requesting they play a song called "Natalie Portman." The Weezer influence was fairly obvious. They played stadium style rock, clean chunky guitar riffs and intricate solos, with a definite pop sensitivity. And while they played with a with a lot of enthusiasm, including a guitarist pogoing and striking various rock poses, they just didn't really catch my interest. Nothing about the music seemed particularly original and the vocals didn't come across as very sincere. I would have been just as happy if they had stayed in Pasadena.

If someone were to say to me 'Weezer fan,' I would immediately picture a young Japanese girl with a Mickey Mouse T-shirt, a Hello Kitty purse and '80s-style running shoes. The weird thing I discovered talking to people before the show is that there are a lot of closet Weezer fans. People you would never expect it from go nuts for this band, and even the people who claim to not like Weezer at all know all the words to at least one song. After having not really done anything for several years, Weezer is selling out shows all over the place. In that way, the band is a kind of social anomaly, in that they can have that kind of mass appeal and still maintain the kind of credibility that they have.

Weezer came out to a sampling of sound bites from the Brady Bunch and various other old TV sitcoms which had been rearranged to produce humorous comments and generally question the sexuality of the characters of the Brady Bunch. Then they launched into "My name is Jonas." They had sound problems during the first part of their set — vocals weren't coming through one of the monitors, but they persevered and switched mics for each song, depending on who had to sing backing vocals. This was actually kind of entertaining since they had to signal each other when to switch their foot pedals. They continued through a set of songs from both albums and a handful of new songs at an amazing pace, barely pausing between tunes. The songs they played from Pinkerton were sped up and played with so much more energy that they sounded more like stuff from the first album. The emotion, intensity and sincerity of Rivers Cuomo's vocals definitely make Weezer what they are. Hearing him sing "Say It Ain't So" actually gave me chills. On other, more light-hearted but still cynical songs like "Why Bother" and "In The Garage," the lyrics really reflect who Cuomo is. During the show, the band introduced their new bass player, Mikey Welsh, formerly of Juliana Hatfield's band. He definitely adds his own style to the group, which seems much louder and more aggressive. It should be interesting to see how he sounds on their next album.

The show probably wasn't one of the their best performances, mostly do to the technical problems. It also seemed short despite of the fairly long set list, but that was probably just because of the early show time. Aside from a few problems and complaints, it was a fun show and I'll definitely drive to see them again.

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