[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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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.
When this tour was announced I knew that I’d have to get tickets for the whole family to go to. We haven;t all been to a big spectacle show and I thought this sounded like a great one.
