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Weezer / Ringside

live in Minneapolis (2005)
Weezer

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: Eddie
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on May 17th 2005

I’m not sure why it took me so long to get into Weezer. I always liked them growing up, but I didn’t go out of my way to listen to them with the same kind of tenacity as my friends. And as a result, I didn’t find myself all that anxious to attend their show in my home state (Iowa) when they passed through while promoting Maladroit a few years back.

Then, the summer after graduating from high school in 2003 (when I first started abandoning the musical tastes of my younger days), I finally started to really listen to my underused copies of Pinkerton and the Blue Album and became a total Weezer addict (the Green Album was okay and Maladroit simply bored me).

Now, I found myself really irritated that I missed my chance to see them the first time around, considering the chances for any band to play Iowa more than once are usually pretty slim. So when they announced the Make Believe tour dates, I knew I just had to go, no matter where they played. I chose the Minnesota date. Sure, I had to drive four hours to get to them, but I knew it would be worth it.

The show took place at an ordinary venue in downtown Minneapolis called First Avenue. It was much, much smaller than I expected. No wonder it sold out in two hours flat. The opening act was some band called Ringside, who sounded like some sort of indie rock with a strong emphasis on the keyboards. (They’re already on Geffen Records, which I’m sure had something to do with the current popularity of the Killers.) They were decent musicians and all, but the songs were fairly forgettable and too monotonous for my taste. It certainly wasn’t the kind of band I expected to be opening for Weezer.

My friend and I found a nice spot in the crowd, and everyone impatiently awaited the arrival of their favorite rock and roll geeks. They finally took the stage and blasted right into it. As usual, stage banter was kept to a minimum, with only a few comments made here and there. Rivers Cuomo was satisfied, just smirking the whole time. It was also a surprisingly tame show as well, with almost no moshing or crowd surfing. As a matter of fact, I’d say the average age of the crowd was probably nineteen or twenty -- I guess the sixteen-year-olds of today are too busy with their Linkin Parks and their My Chemical Romances to pay much attention to the aging Weezer.

The biggest crowd-movers were “Island In The Sun,” and the set openers and closers, “Tired Of Sex” and “The Good Life.” Other definite highlights of the night for me were “In The Garage,” “My Name Is Jonas,” Brian Bell taking lead vocals on “Getchoo,” and finally seeing that big ol’ “W” in person. Pretty much everything was just spectacular to hear live, even “Beverly Hills” and “We Are All On Drugs,” two fairly awful songs in their CD recorded versions.

So was it worth the eight hours of driving and not getting to bed ‘til three in the morning? Well, let’s put it this way: They played a total of nine songs from the Blue Album and Pinkerton and zero songs from Maladroit.

Yeah, it was worth it.

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Anonymous (June 21, 2005)

what else are kids in Minn. doing.....relax you old goats and let the kids rock....If you don't like it go to The stones when they come...other wise get some dope and chill....Or I recommend Mushrooooooooms. later

Anonymous (May 21, 2005)

"19-20 is describing young kids."

Let it go, oldie. Dont worry, you'll die soon enough.

Anonymous (May 20, 2005)

what the fuck is up with the people on this site? man, you want to talk about things going downhill...

Jameson (May 20, 2005)

Score is for lack of Descendents tour

Jameson (May 20, 2005)

Score is for Milo

EMOHOLOCAUST (May 19, 2005)

Assholes
losers
faggots
dumb
idiots
butthead
poopoo

Anonymous (May 19, 2005)

Gay

Anonymous (May 19, 2005)

Decent review but you can chop off the first 5 paragraphs.

Anonymous (May 19, 2005)

"average age 19-20?"

19-20 is describing young kids.

MarkieStabone (May 18, 2005)

"...Speaking of singles, while its not one yet, "We Are All On Drugs" is showing signs of life already. It was played on SLC's X96's "Todd's Ipod" new music show, and its being heard with some regularity on the airwaves in 'gotta have it first' L.A... "

thoy (May 17, 2005)

average age 19-20?

I was at the show and it was full of young kids that were very annoying.

The crowd really pissed me off.

captaincrunch (May 17, 2005)

If you took their last 3 albums and only took the best 10-12 songs off those, that new 'album' still wouldn't be remotely close to pinkerton or the blue album. That says a lot about where the band has gone.

Anonymous (May 17, 2005)

fuck weezer. if i have to read one more article or interview that talks about the 'reclusive' rivers cuomo i'm gonna puke. not really, cos i hope to never read any press about this egomaniac ever again. he always talks about how he wrote 100 songs just for this album, blah blah blah...people act like he is this super prolific songwriter like bob dylan or something. no, he wrote songs like 'hash pipe' and the fucking god awful new single 'beverly hills', which are shite. maybe i'm just disappointed, but you knew deep down inside, after matt sharp left the band they'd never be the same. and they're not.

SkolarX (May 17, 2005)

"Then, the summer after graduating from high school in 2003"

good god, thank you for making me feel like an old man...

i watched the video for beverly hills last night and it made me feel that maybe milo was right when he slagged them in an interview in 96. they are fake nerds, trying overly hard to play up their nerdiness.

Anonymous (May 17, 2005)

Pretty bland review....

Anonymous (May 17, 2005)

nothing ordinary about first ave, my friend.

and for the record, maladroit kicks the shit out of green. green kicks the shit out of the new one. and the first two kick the shit out of all of them. that's it and that's all.

blaubs21 (May 17, 2005)

c'mon Maladroit wasn't that bad.....*thinks about it*...okay nevermind. yes. yes it was. "Slave" was the only decent song on that entire CD.

Cos (May 17, 2005)

They played "Tired of Sex"????? Really? Woulda killed to see that....

--Cos

Psychoos231 (May 17, 2005)

These guys don't do it for me, their single is horrible.

stevejonestherealbones (May 17, 2005)

how many more times can we all bitch about weezer? please let us take a break at least ....

anyway...aarrrgghhhh rrooooaaarrr....wweeeeezzererr no ngood no mooooo.....giveee wwweeeezzzzeeeeee aaaa brrreeeaakkkk ththhheeeyyyy sstttiiiiiiilklll aaarrrreeeee ggooooooddddd....mmmmaaaatttt sssshhhharrrrooopppppp iiiiissssss gooooooddddddd.....shhhhaaaarrrrppppp hhhhaaaaddddd nnnnoooooo bbbbeeeeaaaarrrrriinnnngggg onnnnn wwwweeeezzzerrrr sooonnnnggggssssss bllllaaaahhhhh bllllaaaahhhhhh bbbbllllahhhhhh

- jonesy the a bonesy

- stevejones8770@yahoo.com