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Archive for the ‘Weezer’ Category

Weezer (XFinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia PA, September 29, 2026)

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Silversun Pickups, The Shins, Weezer, XFinity Mobile Arena on October 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 29, 2026] Weezer

This is my fourth time seeing Weezer.  I’m not a huge Weezer fan and I know they’ve released some real stinker songs, but when they hit it right, they absolutely nail it.  And their shows are a lot of fun.

This is the first time I’ve seen them headline in a pretty long time.  I remembered their 2018 show was a great spectacle showing the band progress through the years.  But they went all out for this show and it was a blast!

The show began with a video of a kid drawing pictures like those in the poster to the right.  Some bullies mocked Nicholas for drawing his weird Ws and Nicholas said that Weezer were playing at his house tonight.  The kids don’t believe him.  Nicholas wishes really hard and the weird symbols he’s drawing start to glow and Rivers received the message about a show that night.  He grabs the band and they head to Nicholas’ house.

The stage had been setup to look like a back yard.  There was a house (!) as well as telephone poles (with sneakers on the wires) artificial turf and a picket fence.  On the screen, the guys approach a fence and then walked through the fence on stage. A simple detail, but really fun.  The screen converted to a backyard scene with a swimming pool and trees and everything.  It looked really convincing (despite being obviously fake).

The story was played out though the whole night (even if the guys in the band are TERRIBLE actors–so bad!  Rivers’ “let keep this party going” and things were pretty sus but who cares).

They started playing a brand new song (I don’t now the album all that well, but everyone on the floor sure did).  In addition to showing the band on the stage, the cameramen in the front row went back an forth to the folks in the front row, and most of them were singing along.

And then came what was mostly a greatest hits selection of songs, but with quite a few deep cuts as well.  (more…)

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The Shins (XFinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia PA, September 29, 2026) [WEEZER]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Silversun Pickups, The Shins, Weezer, XFinity Mobile Arena on September 30, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 29, 2026] The Shins

I have been a fan of The Shins since their debut album came out and I have never seen them live.  I put them very high on my list of bands that I wanted to see.  But I assumed I just never would.  (They played Franklin Music Hall in 2022 and The Fillmore in 2017).  And yet, here they were opening for Weezer.

I don’t know what James Mercer (the only real Shin at this point) has been up to for this last decade (their last album came out in 2017), but whatever it is, he’s been keeping his voice in amazing condition.

They opened with Simple Song and I immediately remembered how much I love The Shins.  And as soon as he hit the first high notes of the song–and hit them confidently and easily, I knew this set was going to be fantastic.  They made some use of the video screens.  The camera zoomed in on the musicians from time to time and behind them, for each song there was a different band name logo, which was really fun.

Up next was Australia (I realized I have no idea what the names of these songs are) but as soon as the “la la las” came along, the whole song flooded back.  And Mercer seemed like he was having a really good time up there.  He commented about how he had never been on an arena tour before and how much fun he was having. (more…)

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Silversun Pickups (XFinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia PA, September 29, 2026) [WEEZER]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Silversun Pickups, The Shins, Weezer, XFinity Mobile Arena on September 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 29, 2026] Silversun Pickups

I had been wanting to see Silversun Pickups for a pretty long time and finally managed to see them (after missing easily a half dozen shows in our area over the course of a year or so) in 2024.  And they were great.  I really wanted to see them again, but once again, their headlining show fell during a vacation.

So, at last here they were again, this time opening for Weezer.

Initially, my wife said she didn’t want to go to this show, but upon hearing that The Shins were opening, she changed her mind.  I wound up getting cool seats in the club section (which includes a personal food and drink and bathroom area) and we fought the traffic (why would you AC/DC playing at the football field next door at the EXACT SAME TIME as this show?

We arrives in time, found our cool seats and even ordered food (which we never do) because we hadn’t had time for a pre meal dinner.  Hint: go for the kid’s meal, it’s a decent sized portion for half the price).

We were on the left side of the stage.  Almost parallel to the stage but not quite and really rather close.  Great seats.  And even if you couldn’t see the screens behind them straight on, they were done really well and were easily viewed from where we were.

The Silversun Pickups came out and Nikki Monninger’s bass rumbled the opening notes of Well Thought Out Twinkles. The sounded great.  The venue’s sound quality isn’t perfect or anything, but they sounded really good–that bass was so clean.  It’s always fun to watch drummer Chris Guanlao, going crazy pack there–hair flying, sticks smashing things.  He shows you how fun being a drummer can be. (more…)

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Weezer / The Flaming Lips / Dinosaur Jr. (Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA, September 13, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Dinosaur Jr., Philadelphia, PA, The Flaming Lips, Weezer, Wells Fargo Center on September 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: September 13, 2024]  Weezer / The Flaming Lips / Dinosaur Jr.

I mean, there’s no reason I DIDN’T go to this show.  I love all three bands and have seen each of them at least 3 times.

But this show (in which Weezer played the whole Blue Album) just felt too big.  I didn’t want to go to Wells Fargo Center to see them–especially since I’ve seen all three of them in smaller venues.

As it happened, the week was busy anyhow, but I still acknowledge that this would have been an amazing show to see.

The Weezer setlist was fantastic, including a small Pinkerton section.

The Flaming Lips played for almost an hour–ten songs, most of the hits and a few songs from Yoshimi.  Great stuff.

Dinosaur Jr opened and they played six songs classics in about 25 minutes.

What a cool show.

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Weezer / Future Islands / Joyce Manor (Mann Center, Philadelphia PA, June 27, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Future Islands, Joyce Manor, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, Weezer on June 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 27, 2023] Weezer /Future Islands / Joyce Manor

Weezer has turned into the Barenaked Ladies for me.

What does that mean?

Well, I have seen Barenaked Ladies a bunch of times (starting back in the days before Steven Page left). In the last decade or so, they have been doing a Last Tour of Summer every summer, where they have two opening bands and they play most of their hits.   Every year the shows are fairly similar with a few new songs thrown in the mix.  But I have since decided I would go based on the opening bands.  If they pick one (or two) bands I really want  to see, then I’ll go.  If they pick bands I actively don’t like, I won’t go.  This year, they picked two bands I didn’t like (I would have happily seen Semisonic, but they were only on the west coast).

Now it appears that Weezer will also be doing an annual summer tour.  I’ve only seen Weezer three times, but they’ve all been fairly recently, so I find myself in the same boat.  I’d be happy to see Weezer again, but only if the opening bands are ones I want to see.

And look at the support bands!  Modest Mouse!  Spoon!  Momma!  even White Reaper. (more…)

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The Menzingers (Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, October 9, 2021) Philly Music Fest Night 4

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, Marco Benevento, Philly Music Fest, Weezer on October 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 9, 2021] The Menzingers

I saw The Menzingers open for Weezer back in 2016 and really enjoyed them.  I’d been wanting to see them again mostly because I was really far from the band when I saw them and couldn’t really get into it the way I might have liked.

So when they were listed as headlining two nights of Philly Music Fest I knew I had to see them.  Especially in a small place like Ardmore Music Hall.

I have only been to Ardmore a couple of times.  My favorite show there was Marco Benevento where the sound was outstanding.  Even right up against the stage.  Well, for this show I was right up against the stage (although as more and more people crowded into the place, I moved away from the band’s more devoted (and a little crazy) fans.  But apparently I never got far back enough because literally all I could hear the whole show was Tom May’s guitar.  And May tends to play lead licks and solos, so I never really got the backing chords of Greg Barnett unless May wasn’t playing anything (which happened from time to time).

Obviously it was more fun being able to see bassist Eric Keen and drummer Joe Godino (who I couldn’t see at all last time), but it was weird having the sound so disjointed.  Throughout the set I tries moving further and further away from the stage, but I was never able to get further to the middle. (more…)

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Green Day: Hella Mega Tour (Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, PA, August 20, 2021) [rescheduled from August 29, 2020]

Posted in AC/DC, Citizens Bank Park, David Bowie, Fall Out Boy, Green Day, Grethe Ingmann, Hella Mega Tour, Kiss, Operation Ivy, Philadelphia, PA, The Interrupters, Weezer on August 23, 2021|

[ATTENDED: August 20, 2021] Green Day: Hella Mega Tour: Green Day / Fall Out Boy / Weezer / The Interrupters [rescheduled from August 29, 2020]

I loved Green Day’s Dookie when it came out.  I also really liked American Idiot (and a bunch of stuff in between).  But it was pretty wild when my teenage son became a big fan of Green Day (especially American Idiot).  I’ve never seen Green Day live before–which I’m guessing I now regret since they were fantastic live.

The most interesting thing to S. and myself was that they opened their part of the set by playing Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” over the speakers at full concert volume.  Not Green Day playing it, but the actual original version.  And the crowd went utterly bananas.  Singing along at full volume.  The lights even went bright and dim accordingly.  It was a pretty amazing moment to hear an entire arena singing along to a song.  And it really got everyone pumped.  It was a pretty genius idea and I’m surprised more bands don’t do it.

They followed this with Ramones’ “Blitzkreig Bop” which went over although not quite as well, but it segued into a kind of mashup of “Also Sprach Zarathustra”, “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”, “Blitzkrieg Bop”, and “We Will Rock You” played behind a series of clips from Green Days shows old and new.  It was clear they were preparing for A SHOW.

They came out on stage to lights and video and started out with two songs from American Idiot.  And the crowd was berserk.  “American Idiot” and “Holiday” was like a one-two punch of wonderfulness for my son.  And there were fireworks and explosions and big lights and it was a great start.

I never knew that Billie Joe Armstrong was such a great and engaging front man.  I was especially delighted that he acknowledged that many of the fans there were from New Jersey.  I mean, sure we were in Philadelphia, but there were lots of NJ folks there and he really won us over by dividing the crowd into the Philly and NJ sides to see who could be louder.  This was especially cool for my kids, I think. (more…)

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Fall Out Boy: Hella Mega Tour (Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, PA, August 20, 2021) [rescheduled from August 29, 2020]

Posted in Citizens Bank Park, Fall Out Boy, Green Day, Hella Mega Tour, Philadelphia, PA, The Interrupters, The Munsters, Weezer on August 22, 2021|

[ATTENDED: August 20, 2021] Fall Out Boy: Hella Mega Tour: Green Day / Fall Out Boy / Weezer / The Interrupters [rescheduled from August 29, 2020]

Both of my kids are pretty big Fall Out Boy fans (naturally, my son likes the older songs and my daughter likes the newer songs).  I really only know them from my kids playing them.  This means, however, that I know most of their popular songs.  So while I wasn’t looking forward to this set as much as the other two, I was looking forward to a couple of songs (I suspected that the “Light ’em Up” song would have excellent pyrotechnics, and I was right).

So after Weezer, we ran off to Chickie and Pete’s to get some fries and made it back to our seats in plenty of time (we somehow just beat the crowd).  A dark cloud floated over the stadium as we were enjoying out fries.  So I looked at the weather app which assured us that there was no chance of precipitation, and moments later the skies opened up and dropped bucket loads of water on us.  We were soaked!

The main concern was that the posters would get wet (they got a little wet but nothing too bad).  As we tried to stay dry, Fall Out Boy came out and we quickly forgot about the rain.

They had a very cool set–it looked like a hole dug into the earth or something (it was a little hard to focs with all the rain) and a video screen in the hole which showed a series of videos that seemed to be telling a story.  In fact, when the set started a narrator told us something (I couldn’t follow it at all) that I assumed had to do with the narrative. (more…)

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Weezer: Hella Mega Tour (Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, PA, August 20, 2021) [rescheduled from August 29, 2020]

Posted in Billie Eilish, Citizens Bank Park, Fall Out Boy, Green Day, Hella Mega Tour, Philadelphia, PA, The Interrupters, Weezer on August 21, 2021|

[ATTENDED: August 20, 2021] Weezer: Hella Mega Tour: Green Day / Fall Out Boy / Weezer / The Interrupters [rescheduled from August 29, 2020]

After The Interrupters, we decided to get some snacks.  Who would have guessed that snacks could take so long?  Well, any reasonable person could have.  But we waited for French fries (not realizing that Chickie and Pete’s was just down the way with tons of fries for the taking).  We gave up when it was a few minutes before Weezer was supposed to go on and then, as we were heading down the stairs, the unmistakable sound of Van Halen’s “Jump” playing over the speakers.

This was the key for the Weezer to come out on stage with six bass drums (spelling out Weezer), giant teal lightning bolts, a light up W logo and a video screen.

When I saw Weezer headline two years ago, the set was amazing–set changes, fire, lasers!  This one was a little less amazing, but, heck if you’re the first of three bands and you only have an hour, you don’t have time for fooling around.

The band released Van Weezer a few months before the show and it was clearly designed to let Weezer Rock out a bit more–or at least to give Rivers Cuomo an opportunity to sport a mullet and mustache.  He was also wearing a big black leather jacket and playing a flying V guitar.

And so the early part of the show was pretty heavy with the new.  “Hero” and “All the Good Ones” sandwiched one of my favorite songs from the early 2000s, “Hash Pipe.”  “Beverly Hills” also rocks and Brian Bell plays a fun talkbox solo, which everyone likes.

Then Rivers introduced “The End of the Game” by talking about the wicked riff that starts it (classic heavy metal hammering riff).  From there, the band dove deep and the fans went crazy.  The jacket came off around here and he was wearing a white ringer T (the video screens showed off his painted nails).

“My Name is Jonas” was one of five songs from their debut.  It was followed by a rocking “Pork and Beans” with a nice promo for Weezer’s own brand of pork and beans on the video screen.

For a set that was heavy on the first and last albums, they did manage to throw in one song from a bunch of other ones too.  The noisy “Feels Like Summer” from Pacific Daydream was followed by the new hit single “All My Favorite Songs” (off of OK Human).  I wondered if the band felt weird about playing the song that was essentially a Rivers solo song.  But it was fun and we all sang along.

Then it was back to the debut again for “Undone” and the rather surprising “Surf Wax America” (of all the debut album songs, I wouldn’t have expected this one).  And, this is the first time I’ve seen them play it in three shows.

I was pretty delighted when they started “El Scorcho” (because I’m a Pinkerton junkie) but had totally forgotten about the line “I asked her to go to the Green Day concert.”  How cool is that?  Obviously the crowd went nuts for that.

The Green album seems to be quite a popular release too, so “Island in the Sun” went over like gangbusters.  Then came the moment everyone was waiting for.  The hit single that was 100% ironic and is now 100% unironic as everyone sang along full bore to Toto’s “Africa.”  Rivers even got to hit the giant floor tom (which I thought was decorative) for a mini drum solo with Patrick Wilson (whose drumming skills are really top notch).

Interestingly, it started raining about 30 minutes after they were singing about the rains down in Africa–almost perfectly timed.

After one more dip into a different album (the black album) for “California Snow,” they ended with two more from the debut.  The crowd went nuts for “Say It Ain’t So” and even more nuts for “Buddy Holly.”

Rivers seemed to have a lot of fun with us–even if he didn’t smile very much (how can you tell behind that mustache?).  I assumed that this would be a kind of nostalgic set of all classic tracks, but they played six songs that I hadn’t seen them play before.  There were plenty of big hits mixed in as well, and it pushed everyone’s happy buttons.

Although both of my kids said it was their least favorite set.

Hella Mega, August 20, 2020
Jump [Van Halen taped intro]
Hero √
Hash Pipe Gϖ
All the Good Ones √
Beverly Hills ⊗
The End of the Game √
My Name Is Jonas Bϖ
Pork and Beans Rϖ
Feels Like Summer Φ
All My Favorite Songs ⊕
Undone – The Sweater Song Bϖ
Surf Wax America Bϖ
El Scorcho ρ
Island in the Sun Gϖ
Africa (Toto cover) Tϖ
California Snow Blϖ
Say It Ain’t So Bϖ
Buddy Holly Bϖ

 

PNC Bank Center, July 20, 2018 Sands Bethlehem, December 3, 2016
Buddy Holly Bϖ California Kids [white]
Beverly Hills  ⊗ Hash Pipe Gϖ
Pork and Beans Rϖ My Name is Jonas Bϖ
Undone – The Sweater Song Bϖ (If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To [rad]
(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To [rad] Pork and Beans Rϖ
Perfect Situation ⊗ Wind In Our Sail (Live Debut) [white]
My Name is Jonas Bϖ Jacked Up [white]
El Scorcho ρ Perfect Situation ⊗
In the Garage Bϖ Thank God for Girls [white]
Why Bother? ρ Beverly Hills ⊗
Happy Together with a snippet of Green Day’s Longview Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori (Live debut) [white]
Keep Fishin’ (Brian Bell sings lead) ≅ Undone – The Sweater Song Bϖ
Island in the Sun (Rivers solo) Gϖ Island in the Sun (with Rivers’ acoustic solo version of Kiss’ “Beth”) Gϖ
Take on Me (Rivers solo) Tϖ King of the World [white] / Only in Dreams Bϖ [white]
Burndt Jamb ≅ Say It Ain’t So Bϖ
Hash Pipe Gϖ encore
Feels Like Summer [pd] Φ El Scorcho (Rivers solo on piano for first verse) ρ
Africa Tϖ Buddy Holly Bϖ
encore
The Good Life ρ
Say It Ain’t So Bϖ
Paranoid (Black Sabbath, partial)

Songs from:

Weezer 1994
Pinkerton 1996
Weezer 2001
Maladroit 2002
Make Believe 2005
Weezer 2008
[rad]= Raditude 2009
[white] = Weezer 2016
[pd] = Pacific Daydream 2017

Bϖ = Weezer (blue album) (1994)
ρ = Pinkerton (1995)
Gϖ = Weezer (green album) (2001)
≅ = Maladroit (2002)
⊗ = Make Believe (2005)
Rϖ = Weezer (red album) (2008)
[rad]= Raditude 2009
[white] = Weezer 2016
Φ = Pacific Daydream (2017)
Tϖ = Weezer (teal album) (2019)
Blϖ = Weezer (black album) (2019)
⊕ = OK Human (2021)
√=Van Weezer (2021)

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The Interrupters: Hella Mega Tour (Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, PA, August 20, 2021) [rescheduled from August 29, 2020]

Posted in Billie Eilish, Citizens Bank Park, Fall Out Boy, Green Day, Hella Mega Tour, Philadelphia, PA, The Interrupters, Weezer on August 20, 2021|

[ATTENDED: August 20, 2021] The Interrupters: Hella Mega Tour: Green Day / Fall Out Boy / Weezer / The Interrupters [rescheduled from August 29, 2020]

I bought tickets for this show in September of 2019.  I knew it would be a ton of fun for the whole family.  And I was right!

All four of us loved the show (even if we got poured on mid set).

We arrived plenty early, but didn’t realize the super long line was the merch line.  So we were a little late to get on line.  But since there were four of us, we could take turns and the hour (!) wait didn’t seem all that bad.  Especially since we snagged some Federal Donuts (yum) mid-wait.

The only downside to the wait (I mean, it kept us out of the sun), was that we missed the first two songs by The Interrupters.  Well, actually we could hear them just fine, we just couldn’t see them.

We headed down to our seats during the fourth song and really only paid attention to them when they started the song after that.  Which happened to be their cover of Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” which was a ton of fun. (more…)

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