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PHOTOS β€” Weezer 2024

Weezer β€’ September 20 2024 β€’ Kia Center β€” Orlando, FL β€’ Photos by Kyle Miller β€” instagram.com/somewhat_creative_photo

Weezer Live Review

Review by Trevor Bosmans

In 1996, just after the release of Pinkerton, Weezer performed a six-song acoustic set and held a meet and greet at a record store within walking distance from my school. Weezer was my favorite band at the time. This was my first show completely on my own without my parents, so this was huge for me. The show was everything I had dreamed of and I even got the band to sign my copy of Pinkerton. Although I’ve seen Weezer perform many shows in the years since, none of them were able to capture the magic of that first time as much as Weezer’s The Blue Planet Tour at Kia Center. Not only did they play The Blue Album in full, but they did a set of hits and Pinkerton era rarities. They also brought along legends Dinosaur Jr and The Flaming Lips for the ride.

I arrived at Kia Center just as Dinosaur Jr. was hitting the stage. I am a longtime fan of this band, but this was my first time seeing them perform. Their six-song career spanning set flew by and left me wanting more. They were definitely the loudest band I’ve ever seen. Although I loved every minute of their set, this was probably not the best place to experience Dinosaur Jr. for the first time. I’d love to see them in a smaller venue the next time they come to town.

I’ve seen The Flaming Lips more times than I can count over the last twenty years but never at a venue as big as Kia Center. They opened with two songs off their 1999 breakthrough album The Soft Bulletin. Over the course of the next hour, The Flaming Lips crammed as many songs as they could into their shorter than normal set while making many new fans along the way. They played fan favorites from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (with giant blow up pink robots) as well as a few tracks from their other albums throughout the years, and of course their biggest hit from the 90’s “She Don’t Use Jelly”. Wayne Coyne’s charismatic energy had the entire crowd won over by the end of their set.

I could have left the show a happy man at that point, but nothing could prepare me for the Weezer set I was about to witness. This was an old school Weezer’s fan’s dream show. The only thing that could ever top this night is if they played The Blue Album and Pinkerton back-to-back with an encore of B-Sides and rarities. Weezer has released many albums since the early 2000’s and although some of it isn’t their best work, this show was proof that these guys have still got it. Not only did Rivers Cuomo sounds just as good as he did thirty years ago, but the rest of the band also sounded incredibly tight.

Weezer opened the show with a pair of songs from 2014’s highly underrated Everything Will Be Alright in the End. The rest of the set was comprised of greatest hits and one new song from their SZNZ series. They even threw in one of my favorites, Burndt Jamb from Maladroit which was a nice surprise to get us ready for what we were about to experience.

It may have been the 30th Anniversary of The Blue Album but it wouldn’t be a celebration without a tribute to Weezer’s cult-classic second album, Pinkerton. Weezer treated us to a five song Pinkerton era set consisting of fan favorites such as “Why Bother?”, “Across the Sea” and “You Gave Your Love to Me Softly” from the Angus soundtrack. It was so great to hear these rarely played songs after all these years.

It was finally time for the reason we were all here, The Blue Album in its entirety. Kia Center erupted with those familiar opening notes of “My Name is Jonas”. Whether you were an old fan or a new fan, everyone knew the words to this song. The next forty-five minutes were pure nostalgic sing-along bliss. As always, it was great to hear all the hits, but I loved hearing the album’s deeper cuts like “No One Else” and “In the Garage” live for the first time in years. There was only one way to end this show and that was with a nearly ten-minute version of the album closer “Only in Dreams”, the perfect end to a perfect album.

I’ve been to a lot of shows this year but Weezer’s The Blue Planet Tour was easily the most fun I’ve had in a very long time. The amount of time and energy put into the production of this show shined throughout. Weezer definitely delivered the fan service on this tour, and I loved every minute of it. Now if only we could get a Pinkerton tour. Only in Dreams?


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