On Sunday night, Weezer became undoubtedly the biggest band to play the Sinclair in the venue’s brief two year history, and probably the biggest act to perform in Harvard Square since Bob Dylan, The Clash, and Bruce Springsteen all played shows at the now abandoned Harvard Square Theater in the 70’s.
Cambridge was one of the few lucky cities chosen to host an intimate club date on the band’s Everything Will Be Alright In The End Tour, where Rivers Cuomo and co. were set to perform their surprisingly solid new album in full.
The four-piece opened with a 45 minute acoustic set that focused on old favorites and rarities, including “El Scorcho”, “The Good Life”, and “Susanne”. This portion of the show could best be described as “laid back” – as the lights never dimmed and Rivers casually joked with the audience, talking about how great it was to be back in his old Harvard stomping grounds.
After a very short break, the band returned to the stage with electric guitars in-hand and blew through a rousing, high-energy performance of EWBAITE. The die-hard crowd ate it up, obviously not just familiar with the new material, but loving every minute of it.
Weezer’s decision to open with an acoustic set turned out to be a brilliant one, as the crowd was basically lulled into a nostalgic sense of security during the first half of the night before being being jolted awake by the bombastic opening cords to “Ain’t Got Nobody”. The sheer volume of the new material, coupled with a dazzling light show, enveloped the audience in a way an acoustic set can never do, and highlighted the perfect dichotomy between the two halves of the set.
While Coumo didn’t always looks comfortable performing in front of such a small audience (at one point he discussed the band’s visit to Harvard earlier in the day by reading a paragraph straight off a piece of paper), the band did appear to genuinely enjoy themselves on stage. While this string of club dates may be billed as a way to reconnect with longtime fans, you have to wonder if Weezer did it as much for themselves as they did for anyone fortunate enough to score tickets.
