Review: Weezer’s bespectacled frontman brings big ‘Dad’ energy to Charlotte concert
Even though from a little bit of a distance his horn-rimmed glasses and geek-chic outfits can make Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo look like he’s still only about 35, he actually turned 53 years old this month. He’s the parent of a middle-schooler and a high-schooler.
So it’s no surprise, really, that he’d get up on stage and act out the rock and roll equivalent of a dad joke, like he did at PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte on Saturday night:
Just 15 minutes into their concert, Weezer launched into the Metallica-esque opening riff of 2021’s “1 More Hit,” but when it did, the volume level seemed much softer than it should have been. “Wait, hold on,” Cuomo said as he and his bandmates bailed on the intro. “Something ain’t right, guys.”
Behind him was their “Indie Rock Roadtrip’s” massive set — made to look like the dashboard of an old station wagon, complete with a steering wheel adorned with the band’s logo and an FM radio dial — and when Cuomo indicated the solution was to turn up one of the oversized “knobs” a little, the crowd went into a frenzy.
When they started the song a second time, however, he still wasn’t satisfied. So next, he went and wound up on that fake knob like he was spinning the wheel on “The Price Is Right.”
Yes, it was corny. No, the 20,000 fans who shrieked and shouted at the top of their lungs didn’t seem to mind at all.
They didn’t come for rock-and-roll dad jokes, of course. They came for “Island in the Sun,” and for “Say It Ain’t So,” and for “Buddy Holly,” “Beverly Hills” and “Undone - The Sweater Song.” And over the course of Weezer’s 90-minute set, their fans indeed got what they came for in the form of those hits, as well as the crunchy guitar licks, the offbeat lyrics and the pleasing harmonies that go along with them.
“Island in the Sun” began with a literal spotlight on guitarist Brian Bell, who stood on the left side of the stage wearing dark shades and doing little wavy things with his arms as beach-y guitar strains wafted through the speakers; then a 7-foot inflatable sun descended from the rafters and hung over bassist Scott Shriner — the only one of the four band members not wearing sunglasses for this one.
“Beverly Hills” made the funkiest use of the “car’s” “windshield,” a giant screen to the rear of the stage that in this case displayed an animated street that rolled past in first-person perspective as lines of trees on each side (with palm trunks, marijuana-looking tops and orange sunglasses) swayed in sync to the beat.
Meanwhile, “Undone” was the biggest clap-along song of the night, “Say It Ain’t So” was the biggest singalong song, and encore-close “Buddy Holly” was easily the biggest dance-along song.
But while the band’s most recognizable, most beloved hits received the warmest receptions, there were also some deep cuts worth paying attention to.
Perhaps the most thrilling was “Only in Dream” — a hardcore-fan-favorite from Weezer’s self-titled first record in 1994 — mainly because of its slow and steady build into epic sonic awesomeness over the course of more than seven minutes as done live here in Charlotte. (The studio version, at eight minutes, is the band’s longest song ever.)
Cuomo also pointed out, mid-show, that at each tour stop they try to do “an infrequently used song” just for that one city. For Charlotte, that song was one he wrote in 1994 after their debut blew up, while he was taking music courses at a community college.
“One day (I) came into the practice room and saw a girl who looked exactly like me, except she was super-cute,” he told the crowd. “Same glasses and everything. So of course I’m like, we have got to be boyfriend and girlfriend. I’m gonna make this happen. But me being me ... I never said anything to her. Instead, I wrote this song. So in the song I list all the reasons why there’s no point to talking to her.”
Then he did an aching acoustic rendition of “Why Bother?,” on stage by himself, breaking the mood slightly during the song with a quip — “Brian does a solo here” — in place of, well, his guitarist’s guitar solo in the original recording of the song; and again, slightly, after warbling the outro — Why bother? / (It’s gonna hurt me) It’s gonna hurt me / Why bother? / It’s gonna hurt me — when Cuomo admitted, wryly: “Many people over the years have told me they thought I singing ‘My father is gonna hurt me.’ Which is significantly darker.”
Six songs later, in an effort to wedge another nod to the road-trip theme between “All My Favorite Songs” and “Say It Ain’t So” in the second half of the show, Cuomo hung a Polaroid camera around his neck and announced to the crowd, “It ain’t an official road trip until Dad takes a family photo!”
He used his finger to press the shutter button, but nothing happened. He tried again. Then again and again and again.
Ultimately, he threw up his hands and asked to borrow an audience member’s phone. When the fan tossed it up to him, he bobbled it.
That is, almost certainly, about as “Dad” as you can get.
Weezer’s setlist
1. “My Name Is Jonas”
2. “Beverly Hills”
3. “Return to Ithaka”
4. “The Good Life”
5. “Pork and Beans”
6. “Pink Triangle”
7. “El Scorcho”
8. “Blast Off!”
9. “Undone - The Sweater Song”
10. “Why Bother?”
11. “Susanne”
12. “Only in Dreams”
13. “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)“
14. “Island in the Sun”
15. “Perfect Situation”
16 “All My Favorite Songs”
17. “Say It Ain’t So”
18. “Run, Raven, Run”
19. “Hash Pipe”
20. “Thank You and Good Night”
Encore:
21. “The Waste Land”
22. “Surf Wax America”
23. “Buddy Holly”
