Three Match Breeze

Weezer are in the midst of a small club tour, and played the 400-capacity Slim’s in San Francisco on November 2nd. The show started with frontman Rivers Cuomo onstage alone with an acoustic guitar. After a quick sound/equipment check, he played a slowed-down version of oldie and fan favorite “You Gave Your Love To Me Softly.” At the end, guitarist Brian Bell came out and the two launched into “The Good Life” from Pinkerton. Each successive song saw another band member come out, first bassist Scott Shriner, and finally drummer Pat Wilson. In all, Weezer played a 9-song opening acoustic set before leaving the stage. After some “technicians” in white lab coats reconfigured the small stage, the band reemerged a few minutes later in more space-age/scientific outfits. The main event for the evening was the band playing their new record, Everything Will Be Alright In The End, in its entirety. Despite Weezer’s up and down output for the last 15 years, the die-hard fans still come out in full force, and they sing along to every song. Luckily for them, and for all of us, EWBAITE is Weezer’s best record in a decade (probably their third or fourth best). One highlight of the show was Thao Nguyen of Thao & the Get Down singing Best Coast singer Bethany Cosentino’s part on one of the record’s better tunes, “Go Away.”