Weezer shows!

Weezer is by far my favorite band. There is no close second. Currently out of the 6 bays in my car cd player 5 of them are occupied by Weezer. Blue Album, Pinkerton, Red Album, Death to False Metal & Hurley. Death to False Metal has one of my new favorite songs I Don't Want Your Lovin, a song about turning down sex from a beautiful, confident, girl of loose morals that is catchy & has some of the best power guitar to close out the song. But I digress. Weezer put on back to back concerts in select cities including Boston where the first night they played the Blue Album in its entirety & the second night Pinkerton in its entirety. When tickets went on sale I bought one for the second night with a couple friends then decided I really wanted to go to both so bought a single ticket for the first night and booked a hotel room down the street.

The shows were held at the Orpheum Theater right on the Boston Commons. It's an old theater that while a bit uncomfortable & hard to see from the balcony has a ton of charm which offset some of the negatives. I got into town during the day on Tuesday and tooled around the area for a while, grabbing a bit to eat after checking into the hotel. The hotel was Nine Zero on Tremont and was impressively nice. I also found a new coffee shop The Thinking Cup which had some amazing espresso and did some great foam art.

Both shows opened with a general set, they took an intermission and then came back with the album. As you can see by the playlists they kicked off the show with Memories from Hurley and they worked back in time going from album to album with Rivers calling out the year. I had just read an interesting article in the Boston Phoenix where Rivers talked about having 2 distinct types of fans that essentially boiled down to fans who love Beverly Hills and fans who love Pinkerton. After seeing both shows they modified their first play list to each type of fan where Beverly Hills fans went with the Blue Album and Pinkerton fans obviously fell to night 2. They stuck with a lot of the bigger hits & poppier songs on day 1. At one point Rivers climbed up into the balcony from stage left and sang most of a song from among the crowd. The only downfall to day 1 besides going solo was sitting behind a handsy non lipstick lesbian couple who increased the pitch & fervor of their make out session as the night went on. The night ended with Only In Dreams which is one of my all time favorite songs. What an amazing what to end a show, the guitars going back and forth working their way to the end was amazing and as I left the theater I was still busting with energy.

Set list first show;
1. Memories
2. If You're Wondering If I Want You To
3. Pork and Beans
4. Beverly Hills
5. Keep Fishing
6. Photograph
7. Island In The Sun
8. Hash Pipe
9. Falling For You

Intermission

10. My Name Is Jonas
11. No One Else
12. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here
13. Buddy Holly
14. Undone - The Sweater Song
15. Surf Wax America
16. Say It Ain't So
17. In the Garage
18. Holiday
19. Only in Dreams



During the day between shows I went to the MFA and explored the new wing of American art. Such an amazing experience! That night met up with Derek & Preston to see the show. This night they only played a couple of the same songs and stuck mostly to the nerdier, more eclectic play list which was such a great compliment to the first night. The tickets for this show were way up in the balcony which made it a little hard to see the front of the stage but being with friends made up for it. Pinkerton is probably my favorite all time album so this night was amazing. Pink Triangle, the Good Life, El Scorcho were all mindblowing. Rivers ended the night singing Butterfly solo on stage and saluted the audience with his guitar held one handed high above his head. Ending on a sad sweet song was probably the most fitting way to go for me as I had such a great time and that it's unlikely they'll ever play these types of shows again.

Set list second show;
1. Memories
2. Pork and Beans
3. The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived
4. Perfect Situation
5. Dope Nose
6. Island In The Sun
7. Hash Pipe
8. You Gave Your Love To Me Softly
9. Susanne
10. Only In Dreams

Intermission

11. Tired of Sex
12. Getchoo
13. No Other One
14. Why Bother
15. Across The Sea
16. The Good Life
17. El Scorcho
18. Pink Triangle
19. Falling For You
20. Butterfly