WEEZER LIVE AT KROQ/Red Bull Sound Space LA

All hail Rivers Cuomo, the nerd lord of Rock! Girls might ogle Chris Hemsworth but deep down they hope his soul is like Rivers’, yearning for true love in a balanced world of quiet meditation and loud Rock n Roll.  This must be the reason for their endearing staying power.  Weezer have crafted a canon of songs built on a no fail template, one that argues if you love 1994’s Blue Album then there’s no reason you shouldn’t love their upcoming 10^th release, the White Album.
 
On the heels of new singles “King Of The World” and “LA Girls” the quartet from LA visited the KROQ & Red Bull Sound Space to take fans down memory lane via live stream.  Rather than force new material down our throats they played a 7-song set of mostly classics to remind us why we should still care about them 22-years after the release of the breakout single, “Buddy Holly”.
 
Off the bat they kick into 2001’s “Hash Pipe”, their most straightforward Rock song to date. “Say It Ain’t So” followed, possibly their most played song on mainstream Rock stations, as the crowd sang verbatim making sure to belt it out on the chorus.  Rivers doesn’t just look like Buddy Holly, he also writes in a 50’s style that is simple and sincere while simultaneously camp (in a John Waters Hairspray kind of way), easy to remember and impossible not to sing along with.  The next songs were “King Of The Hill”, “LA Girls” and “Thank God For Girls”, tracks so new most people shouldn’t know them yet, but, a turn to your side and you’ll see a young millennial girl mouthing all the words as if she’d lived with them for years.  One can only attribute this to the fact radio is no longer the gate keeper for music, and if legendary bands utilize the internet properly they can avoid the inevitable expiration date the industry used to force on stars like race tracks do a horse.  To close the set they took it back to their 2005 crossover smash “Beverly Hills” before ending at the beginning with “Buddy Holly”.
 
Weezer’s place in Rock history is questionable but they are arguably the most consistent band out of the 90s.  Their formula may be 2 decades old but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  A tour is in the works along with their Weezer Cruise to the Caribbean scheduled for 2017. In the meantime we will all be eagerly awaiting the White Album on April 1^st.
 
Check out the KROQ/Red Bull Sound Space live stream archive HERE
photo credit: Chelsea Lauren Photography