Well, I was waiting a while to see them in concert, and Weezer didn't disappoint last Friday night at the Molson Centre.

After a half-decade hiatus, after their poorly received (yet, in my opinion, great!) 2^nd album (entitled Pinkerton), Weezer released their 2^nd self-titled CD, and it was met with commercial success. While some fans were a little sour on it, I think that it was pretty good, despite it's short length. Anyway, Friday night wasn't about commercialism, or album expectations. It was about a rock show, and what a show it was!

After missing the first opening band, Ozma, I did manage to catch the second one, Saves The Day. I don't know what was up with them, but it seemed to me that the singer had a rabid ferret in his pants. Anyway, they were...different. After they left the stage, the main attraction came out. The joint went pretty wild. Here they were. The band that burst on the scene with Buddy Holly back in 1994. So popular were they, that Microsoft put them on the Windows 95 CD. Here's a band that fell off the radar in the mid-to-late 90s, just to rise again in the new millenium. Their enduring nature is due to headman Rivers Cuomo, whose brilliant and catchy songs can stick in one's head and and stay there, like a party guest who doesn't know when to leave. Their special blend of pop, classic and arena rock pleased everyone at the Molson Centre. Well, except that square next to me who said, "Do you mind sitting down? You're blocking my view." And that toddler behind us who passed out in his mother's arms.

They opened with the recent single Island in the Sun, a nice little ditty that was in brilliant contrast to the weather outside. Next was the only flub of the evening. During In the Garage, Rivers's guitar winked out. Ironic, since one line in the song is "I got electric guitar". A stage guy brought out another guitar and they continued to rock out.

Rivers had some pretty cool things to say, too. "Thanks for the funky vibe," he quipped, after some rousing applause. And then a couple of band jokes. "This next song is from our forthcoming album, All Killer No Filler," (a Sum 41 joke) and "This next song is called Basket Case," (a Green Day reference). He also stuck it to rap. "Who here likes rap?" he said. When nobody made any noise, he answered himself, "Yeah, neither do I."

Most of the songs that night came from their 1^st and 3^rd albums, but some tracks from Pinkerton as well as their forthcoming CD Maladroit were slipped in. The songs were note-perfect, when compared to the CDs, which I think was a good thing. That way, the audience gets what they expected, but at the same time, that's the downside. But why mess with a good thing? Rivers picked a good set of old and new.

I keep mentioning Rivers, but the other band members were pretty great, too. Guitarist Brian Bell's volume should have been turned up, but new bassist Scott Shriner was awesome. He'd have these wicked bass solos where he'd bend backwards and crouch down. Pretty cool sight. Drummer Pat Wilson kept the beat going strong all through the 19 song show. But Weezer is Rivers's band at heart and he stole the show. He saved the best for the end.

At the end of the encore (after a giant "W" descended from the rafters), Rivers kept the last note of Surf Wax America ringing. As the rest of the band left the stage, amid smoke and confetti, Rivers stayed, detuning his guitar, creating all sorts of weirds sounds for what seemed like an eternity. Then, note still wobbling, he left the guitar in the middle of the stage and walked off. Pretty cool stuff. After all was sung and done, it was a great rock show. Since the stage was set up at where center ice would be, I'd say roughly 10,000 people went home happy. The only word I thought of that properly defined the night is "bitchin'". Awwwww yeah.

Addendum (added 26/02/2002):

This addendum contains certain things I forgot to mention in my full article.

As I mentioned, there were these square dudes next to me who asked me to sit down. But what I didn't mention is that they managed to (almost) pick up these 3 small-town girls who sat in front of us. That's right. They couldn't be more than 18 years old, and JBo and I agree that only one of them was semi-worth going after. She being the one who may or may not have been wearing any, ahem, support; we couldn't figure it out, despite her very open shirt. Anyway, after the show, they told the guys that they came from a small town, and asked whether they knew of a good bar. The guys (being guys) said that they obviously knew good bars and if the ladies were to follow them, that everyone would have a jolly good time. These dudes bolted faster than a gay man out of Chez Paree, quite excited at the prospect of spending an evening with the females. However, they forgot the girls behind. JBo and I overheard the girls talking among themselves while the guys were away. They doubted the decision to follow these men. They eventually did meet up again and walked off into the night, despite their trepidations.

Another story involves the walk up to the Molson Centre before the show. As we're walking up, there were these two young girls. Teenage, I'd say (scary, isn't it, how 'young' to me includes teenagers?). They were asking, "C'est ou, le Centre Molson?" Passers-by shrugged and said that they didn't know...even thought they were walking straight towards it. I, being the decent human being that I am, simply pointed up the street. Now aren't I nice? Anyway, a little further up, this truck with a "Casino de Montreal" ad drove by and some woman said, "Where's the casino?" Then this guy in his forties, with a stars and stripes tuque took up the topic and asked us, "Yeah, where is the casino? Is it far from here?" I replied that it's on a different island, that's how far. How many miles, he asked? "Miles?" I said, "I don't know about miles." "Fine, minutes away, then?" JBo told him that if he'd get into the Metro stop that we just passed, it would take about 15 minutes. The guy said that he didn't like to blow his money anyway, making the entire conversation moot. However he did add a tirade about how women, and his wife in general, like to blow money on useless things, chiefly among them, shopping and gambling. We all had a good laugh. The situation was made all the more funny by the fact that his wife was walking next to him. Eventually we parted ways. He said he was from Detroit, and was headed off to Moe's Deli and Bar. JBo pointed the way and that, as they say, was the end of that chapter.

DroopyMcC
Jack