Seemingly on a mission to pack as many songs into 75 minutes as possible, Weezer have a lot of friends in this crowd (in fact, anecdotally from where MV was sitting, you’d suggest more than the headliners)
What is interesting though, is rather like the Pumpkins there’s very little of the usual arena antics about their show. Lit from behind so you can barely see them, Rivers Cuomo and the lads, rely on their music to talk for them. And, over the last 30 years – and it is staggering to think that as it seems like only yesterday that I bought their debut) have built up a formidable back catalogue.
At their best, “My Name Is Jonas” and a wonderfully dumb and anthemic “Beverly Hills” they could fill arenas themselves, but what is odd about them – and the headliners too – is that there is no bombast. Maybe it’s like the track says “All My Favourite Songs are sad. They do have a singalong on “Perfect Situation”, and strangely, after saying “This one’s written by Billy Corgan” they knock out a fantastic version of Hole’s “Celebrity Skin”.
Yet somehow, for all the geeky, outsider chic going on here, Weezer do manage to be anthemic when they choose to be, “Say It Ain’t So” is most assuredly that, and in a world where so much of this relies on the subtleties that the setting and the fact its 10,000 people on a Friday night does not afford them, then it is striking how much the metal-tinged “Hash Pipe” sticks out.
“Only In Dreams” sort of floats by, before Cuomo offers a simple: “Let’s do one more”. And you know what it is, and three decades on, has “Buddy Holly” lost any of its ability to make you smile? Absolutely not!
And you get the feeling that Weezer still don’t care what you say about them anyway, not really, and they are more than happy doing their own thing.
It is 13 years, getting on, since I saw a Smashing Pumpkins show, in a much smaller club setting up the road. Even there, they were incongruous. Here, tonight, there is – apart from a proper light show – none of the usual “Arena Rock” trappings. Not a video wall in sight (and even Tool do that) not much in the way of interaction (what there is, is mostly from James Iha, the guitar player), and yet somehow, the three men that have piloted this band mostly since 1988, preside over their domain with a huge skill and pride.
It’s an evening of firsts for them: not only is it Kiki Wong’s first show with the band, but they (rather bizarrely) knock out a cover of “Zoo Station” by U2 for the first time and do their third song in. During the set, they play “That Which Animates the Spirit” and “Springtimes” from their most recent album “Atum” hich they hadn’t before, ditto “Birch Grove” and for the first time ever “Panopticon” is done with the main men – Corgan, Iha and Jimmy Chamberlain – together, and the long and involved “Gossamer” had never been performed by Iha previously.
That last thing is a case in point actually. It might mean loads to the completists and the hardcore, but to an arena crowd, facts are a bit of a shrug, and the energy is rather sucked away.
When the Pumpkins are good, mind you, they are really good. “The Everlasting Gaze” and “Doomsday Clock” start things in fine fashion, and as much as Corgan might not want to focus on the hits, then “Today”, “Tonight, Tonight” and “Disarm” are superb.
Right in the middle is “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” and that is sort of the high water mark here, although a young child (he’s never introduced) dancing about in “Beguiled” wasn’t far behind, and “1979” is a welcome presence.
“Jellybelly” being followed by “Rhinoceros” is sort of the show in microcosm. The former heavy, the latter understated, it’s the yin and yang here.
No encore – always massive bonus points of course – but “Cherub Rock” and “Zero” essentially act as one anyway, picking the pace and giving a feel of spectacle, but this is a band that –as we said with Weezer – is only interested in their own thing (and good luck to them for that).
You can’t help but think about their appearance on The Simpson’s at times here. “Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins,” he’d said, sticking out a hand to shake Homer’s. “Homer Simpson, smiling politely,” came the reply. And for the couple of hours in their world, there is a bit of that going on for most here.
