Weezer at the Aragon Ballroom 01/07/11 & 01/08/11
In January of 2011 my brother and I went to the two Chicago Memories tour dates Weezer did - one night where they took us back to 1994 for the Blue album, and the second that took us back to 1996 for Pinkerton - behind the cut is my report on both awesome shows!
Weezer at the Aragon Ballroom
01/07/2011 & 01/08/2011
When my brother and I heard that Weezer would be doing what they called the “Memories Tour” touring various cities doing two night performances playing their first two albums in entirety, we knew that if they came to Chicago, we needed to go see them. Thanks in part to someone who wanted to sell their tickets online, we were able to go to both shows.
The first night was for the Blue album, and inside the venue State Farm (who sponsored the tour) had set up this giant version of the Blue album’s cover, except with Matt’s head cut out, and they gave each guest the option of getting their picture taken with them as Matt. My brother and I stopped and took advantage of this, though as there were two of us, I got to be Matt and my brother posed in front of the album cover. Then they gave us a card that had our digital pick-up code for the photo. My brother and I also stopped and looked at merchandise.
We were able to get a spot almost exactly where we had been the previous Weezer show we went to, in the first row off to the left in front of the area that Brian stands.
The opening band was called the Limousines, and they were pretty good.
Weezer presented the show as if we were all going in a time machine together, which was pretty awesome. The first half of the show involved Rivers yelling out the year that we were traveling to, and then Weezer played a song (or two or three) from that year, until we got back to the year the album they were playing was from. Also I should note that for this first half of the show Rivers was mainly not playing guitar so he could move around the venue, and Pat was playing guitar instead of drums. So, for the Blue album show they played:
2010 - “Memories”
2009 - “If You’re Wondering if I Want You To (I Want You To)”
2008 - “Troublemaker” and “Pork and Beans”
2005 - “Beverly Hills”
2002 - “Keep Fishin” - during this song Rivers had kind of disappeared and then wound up appearing in the balcony and singing from there, however Brian sang most of the lead for this song.
2001 - “Photograph” - Rivers was still in the balcony for that, and then he came back on stage and started “Island in the Sun” by himself, which was followed by “Hash Pipe.”
1996 - “Falling For You”
Then came the intermission.
The first half of the show was awesome, and I was super excited that they played three songs off of my favorite Weezer album, the Green album. It also surprised me how happy I was to hear “Falling for You.”
Anyhow, during the intermission they had two groups of super talented kids - probably ranging between 10-16 - from a music school here called School of Rock, who came out and covered a couple of Weezer songs. “Don’t Let Go” and “El Schorcho.” They had both male and female vocals, and like I said, they were really good! It also made me happy to know that the young kids of today are being exposed to the music of Weezer.
After that, Karl, Weezer’s long time web manager, came on stage and gave us a lecture with a slide show, about the history of Weezer up to the release - or maybe shortly thereafter - of the Blue album. He showed us early concert posters, a photograph of the garage that “In the Garage” is about, and a ton of really awesome stuff.
The backdrop to the stage was then changed to be Blue album blue, and at least Rivers had changed into a near replica (or maybe the same) of the outfit he wore on the album cover. Fascinatingly he also had reverted to the stage presence he had at Weezer shows back in the mid 90s where he didn’t move around or talk too much. So this truly felt like we’d gone back in time.
Hearing the opening notes of “My Name is Jonas” gave me goosebumps. I feel like the Blue Album was a defining albums of my pre-teen/early teenage years and knowing that we were going to get to hear the entire album live and in order was incredible. I was also super excited for my brother because Weezer is his favorite band and the Blue album is his favorite of their albums, featuring his favorite song by them, “In the Garage”, which he had never heard live in person, so that was a really special moment.
The Blue album sounded fantastic and it brought back so many memories, mostly happy ones, particularly from when I was 11-13. I don’t remember ever having heard “Holiday” or “Only in Dreams” live before, and as “Only in Dreams” is my favorite Weezer song that was very exciting and it was great getting to watch the slow build in of each Weezer band member as the song’s intro went on. I forgot to mention earlier, but for most, if not all of the Blue album set, Pat was playing drums again.
As they were playing the entire Blue album, they didn’t have an encore, but you could tell that everyone in the audience definitely wanted to hear more. I think that Weezer did come out and take a bow at the end.
The next night we got there a little later than we’d wanted, but we noticed that in the lobby they were letting people take pictures as part of the Green album cover, and since that’s my favorite album by Weezer, we had to stop to do that. I posed as Mikey and my brother posed in front again. We also took a moment to participate in a contest where you logged into your facebook account and then spun a wheel to win a prize (just I did that as my brother doesn’t have a facebook). I won a cool Weezer wallet - vinyl with the Raditude album cover on the front, and a picture of Weezer on bikes on the inside. This was kind of perfect because my old wallet had recently broken. My brother and I both got free plastic replicas of Rivers’ classic black framed glasses, which we put on.
When we got up to the stage (which is on the second floor of the Agaron) I think the opening band was already playing, and the left side of the stage didn’t really have any good spots open near the front, so we decided to check out the other side of the stage which has the interesting bonus of being near to backstage door so you can see some of the goings on of people entering and leaving there.
Some of the School of Rock kids who performed the previous night came and stood near us at one point, and my brother told them how much he enjoyed their set, mentioning also how his favorite album is the Blue Album. A parent that was with them said something about how he would really enjoy their set that night.
The Weezer time machine that night took us back through the following songs and times:
2010 - “Memories”
2008 - “Pork and Beans” and “The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived” (for which Rivers put on a cowboy hat similar to the Red Album cover).
2005 - “Perfect Situation” (made me super excited as this is one of my favorite Weezer songs, definitely my favorite one off “Make Believe”)
2002 - “Dope Nose” (Scott sang lead on this one)
2001 - “Hash Pipe”
1996 - B-Sides “You Gave your Love to Me Softly” (we had wondered how they were going to tackle 1996 since this was the Pinkerton night and that’s the year it came out. Going with B-Sides was an awesome idea!)
1995 - B-Sides “Jamie” and “Suzanne” (I had not realized that it was really rare for them to play Jamie, but my brother was really excited that they did and he understood the rarity of it).
1994 - “Only in Dreams” (this made me really excited, too - getting to hear my favorite Weezer song live two nights in a row!)
There were some different School of Rock kids at that night’s performance. These kids were also very impressing. They played “Surf Wax America” and “Say it Ain’t So.”
After that Karl came out and told us some more Weezer history, this time of course pertaining to the Pinkerton area. Lots of really cool information.
Like the previous night, when Weezer returned to play their full album, the backdrop had changed to resemble the cover of the album. It was cool hearing Pinkerton live and like the Blue Album, it brought back lots of memories of how I felt and what my life was like when the album was released. Also, I don’t think I had ever heard a lot of the songs live before, so that was cool in itself.
As always, Weezer put on an amazing show. After this one particularly, I felt inspired to pick up my guitar and really start working at it again. I also felt inspired to look up more information on Weezer as I felt like I didn’t really know enough about them, seeing as they’ve been one of my favorite bands for over half my life.
I don’t remember for sure which day I bought merchandise, but what I got was this awesome t-shirt that combines the covers of the Blue Album and Pinkerton, as well as the debut CD by Brian Bell’s current side project, The Relationship.
Weezer at the Aragon Ballroom
01/07/2011 & 01/08/2011
When my brother and I heard that Weezer would be doing what they called the “Memories Tour” touring various cities doing two night performances playing their first two albums in entirety, we knew that if they came to Chicago, we needed to go see them. Thanks in part to someone who wanted to sell their tickets online, we were able to go to both shows.
The first night was for the Blue album, and inside the venue State Farm (who sponsored the tour) had set up this giant version of the Blue album’s cover, except with Matt’s head cut out, and they gave each guest the option of getting their picture taken with them as Matt. My brother and I stopped and took advantage of this, though as there were two of us, I got to be Matt and my brother posed in front of the album cover. Then they gave us a card that had our digital pick-up code for the photo. My brother and I also stopped and looked at merchandise.
We were able to get a spot almost exactly where we had been the previous Weezer show we went to, in the first row off to the left in front of the area that Brian stands.
The opening band was called the Limousines, and they were pretty good.
Weezer presented the show as if we were all going in a time machine together, which was pretty awesome. The first half of the show involved Rivers yelling out the year that we were traveling to, and then Weezer played a song (or two or three) from that year, until we got back to the year the album they were playing was from. Also I should note that for this first half of the show Rivers was mainly not playing guitar so he could move around the venue, and Pat was playing guitar instead of drums. So, for the Blue album show they played:
2010 - “Memories”
2009 - “If You’re Wondering if I Want You To (I Want You To)”
2008 - “Troublemaker” and “Pork and Beans”
2005 - “Beverly Hills”
2002 - “Keep Fishin” - during this song Rivers had kind of disappeared and then wound up appearing in the balcony and singing from there, however Brian sang most of the lead for this song.
2001 - “Photograph” - Rivers was still in the balcony for that, and then he came back on stage and started “Island in the Sun” by himself, which was followed by “Hash Pipe.”
1996 - “Falling For You”
Then came the intermission.
The first half of the show was awesome, and I was super excited that they played three songs off of my favorite Weezer album, the Green album. It also surprised me how happy I was to hear “Falling for You.”
Anyhow, during the intermission they had two groups of super talented kids - probably ranging between 10-16 - from a music school here called School of Rock, who came out and covered a couple of Weezer songs. “Don’t Let Go” and “El Schorcho.” They had both male and female vocals, and like I said, they were really good! It also made me happy to know that the young kids of today are being exposed to the music of Weezer.
After that, Karl, Weezer’s long time web manager, came on stage and gave us a lecture with a slide show, about the history of Weezer up to the release - or maybe shortly thereafter - of the Blue album. He showed us early concert posters, a photograph of the garage that “In the Garage” is about, and a ton of really awesome stuff.
The backdrop to the stage was then changed to be Blue album blue, and at least Rivers had changed into a near replica (or maybe the same) of the outfit he wore on the album cover. Fascinatingly he also had reverted to the stage presence he had at Weezer shows back in the mid 90s where he didn’t move around or talk too much. So this truly felt like we’d gone back in time.
Hearing the opening notes of “My Name is Jonas” gave me goosebumps. I feel like the Blue Album was a defining albums of my pre-teen/early teenage years and knowing that we were going to get to hear the entire album live and in order was incredible. I was also super excited for my brother because Weezer is his favorite band and the Blue album is his favorite of their albums, featuring his favorite song by them, “In the Garage”, which he had never heard live in person, so that was a really special moment.
The Blue album sounded fantastic and it brought back so many memories, mostly happy ones, particularly from when I was 11-13. I don’t remember ever having heard “Holiday” or “Only in Dreams” live before, and as “Only in Dreams” is my favorite Weezer song that was very exciting and it was great getting to watch the slow build in of each Weezer band member as the song’s intro went on. I forgot to mention earlier, but for most, if not all of the Blue album set, Pat was playing drums again.
As they were playing the entire Blue album, they didn’t have an encore, but you could tell that everyone in the audience definitely wanted to hear more. I think that Weezer did come out and take a bow at the end.
The next night we got there a little later than we’d wanted, but we noticed that in the lobby they were letting people take pictures as part of the Green album cover, and since that’s my favorite album by Weezer, we had to stop to do that. I posed as Mikey and my brother posed in front again. We also took a moment to participate in a contest where you logged into your facebook account and then spun a wheel to win a prize (just I did that as my brother doesn’t have a facebook). I won a cool Weezer wallet - vinyl with the Raditude album cover on the front, and a picture of Weezer on bikes on the inside. This was kind of perfect because my old wallet had recently broken. My brother and I both got free plastic replicas of Rivers’ classic black framed glasses, which we put on.
When we got up to the stage (which is on the second floor of the Agaron) I think the opening band was already playing, and the left side of the stage didn’t really have any good spots open near the front, so we decided to check out the other side of the stage which has the interesting bonus of being near to backstage door so you can see some of the goings on of people entering and leaving there.
Some of the School of Rock kids who performed the previous night came and stood near us at one point, and my brother told them how much he enjoyed their set, mentioning also how his favorite album is the Blue Album. A parent that was with them said something about how he would really enjoy their set that night.
The Weezer time machine that night took us back through the following songs and times:
2010 - “Memories”
2008 - “Pork and Beans” and “The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived” (for which Rivers put on a cowboy hat similar to the Red Album cover).
2005 - “Perfect Situation” (made me super excited as this is one of my favorite Weezer songs, definitely my favorite one off “Make Believe”)
2002 - “Dope Nose” (Scott sang lead on this one)
2001 - “Hash Pipe”
1996 - B-Sides “You Gave your Love to Me Softly” (we had wondered how they were going to tackle 1996 since this was the Pinkerton night and that’s the year it came out. Going with B-Sides was an awesome idea!)
1995 - B-Sides “Jamie” and “Suzanne” (I had not realized that it was really rare for them to play Jamie, but my brother was really excited that they did and he understood the rarity of it).
1994 - “Only in Dreams” (this made me really excited, too - getting to hear my favorite Weezer song live two nights in a row!)
There were some different School of Rock kids at that night’s performance. These kids were also very impressing. They played “Surf Wax America” and “Say it Ain’t So.”
After that Karl came out and told us some more Weezer history, this time of course pertaining to the Pinkerton area. Lots of really cool information.
Like the previous night, when Weezer returned to play their full album, the backdrop had changed to resemble the cover of the album. It was cool hearing Pinkerton live and like the Blue Album, it brought back lots of memories of how I felt and what my life was like when the album was released. Also, I don’t think I had ever heard a lot of the songs live before, so that was cool in itself.
As always, Weezer put on an amazing show. After this one particularly, I felt inspired to pick up my guitar and really start working at it again. I also felt inspired to look up more information on Weezer as I felt like I didn’t really know enough about them, seeing as they’ve been one of my favorite bands for over half my life.
I don’t remember for sure which day I bought merchandise, but what I got was this awesome t-shirt that combines the covers of the Blue Album and Pinkerton, as well as the debut CD by Brian Bell’s current side project, The Relationship.