Weezer at Key Arena

"Weezer" by Caressa Ordona
When they went straight into "My Name is Jonas," we smiled so wide it hurt. At the same time, however, we raised an eyebrow and thought, what the hell is on Rivers' face? All four Weezers were decked out in white coveralls, but Rivers also sported a white ski mask with only his eyes, nose, and mustache peeking out. No matter. Rivers need not come in on vocals for some time because the first few verses were volleyed between Pat, Scott, and Brian--setting the scene for how the rest of the night would flow.

Weezer then moved right into another crowd pleaser, that ode to unrequited love, "Pink Triangle," followed by "Perfect Situation," sung magnificently by bassist Scott Shriner.

When Rivers wasn't singing or showing off his Guitar Hero moves, he was having fun kicking a soccer ball around or jumping on a little trampoline. At some point, like a butterfly leaving its cocoon, the guys all shed their white coveralls, in favor of bright red Weezer jumpsuits. With the antics on stage and the vocal duties getting passed around like a game of hot potato, it was pretty evident this was going to be a different kind of Weezer show than we've seen before.

Other old gems that made an appearance included "Say It Ain't So," "Susanne," "Undone," "El Scorcho" (with a full hootenanny of about thirty local musicians), and "Buddy Holly," as the final encore song.

Plenty of new songs were also played such as "Pork and Beans," and "Troublemaker." Some of the new material we enjoyed. Some, we loathed, like "Automatic," sung by Pat Wilson. Maybe it was because we'd never heard it before. Maybe it was because it seemed so out of place with the rest of the show. Whatever the reason, we hated it. Which is tough to say, because we like Pat.

Oddly enough, two of our favorite moments of the night were when they covered Pink Floyd's "Time" (sung by Pat), and Nirvana's "Sliver" (sung by Rivers). Both were fantastic, not butchered at all, and had us giddy with excitement.

With all the night's highs and lows--the material we didn't like, the lack of certain songs that should be a concert staple (i.e. "Only In Dreams"), and the passing around of vocal duties--the whole show had a very disjointed feel to it. We enjoyed it for the most part and we had our big smile moments. Ultimately, though, we walked back to our car feeling a little bit disappointed. This wasn't the Weezer we saw here two years ago. But hey, they seem to be having a good time.