Weezer - Brixton Academy

Justin and I nipped down to Brixton to catch Weezer at their only UK show. Despite being one of my fave bands for the best part of two decades, I've been becoming progressively less interested in each new Weezer album since the "Red" album in 2008. So I wasn't sure what to expect from this one - would they want to promote their latest album 'Hurley' and play mostly that? I know they embrace their old stuff, but they usually bill these as "Memories" shows and play the "Blue Album" or 'Pinkerton' in their entirety.

All fears were quickly forgotten when the band took to the stage and launched into their very first single "Undone", quickly followed by "My Name is Jonas" and "El Scorcho".

It was fantastic to hear all your favorite Weezer songs getting blasted out live. A few things struck me during the show.

Firstly it seems Weezer have a refreshing attitude to live performance, treating it as a "show" with a focus on entertaining the crowd by playing what they want to hear, rather than whatever their latest release might be. As a result the setlist was wall-to-wall Weezer classics, with only "Pork & Beans" and "Greatest Man Who Ever Lived" (both from the "Red Album") as anything post-2001.

Another thing was how front-man Rivers Cuomo is getting stranger and stranger. Odd stuff tonight included smashing a ukulele during the first song, nerdy/weird between-song banter (lots of references to "the gods of rock"), and a sweet impromptu song about London/Brixton as part of the intro to "Islands in the Sun".

Being a connoisseur of cover versions - it was also great to see a couple featured in tonight's show - a fairly straight reading of Wheatus 2000 hit "Teenage Dirtbag" (which they apparently started covering as everyone confused Wheatus and Weezer, so assumed it was their song anyway), and a main-set closing take on Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" which Rivers introduced as their favorite British song by their favorite British band.

Lastly, it seems somewhere in the last 20 years Weezer turned into a pretty serious rock band. They rock very hard.





Full Setlist:
1. Undone - The Sweater Song
2. My Name Is Jonas
3. El Scorcho
4. Holiday
5. Pink Triangle
6. Susanne
7. Island in the Sun
8. Teenage Dirtbag (Wheatus cover)
9. The Good Life
10. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here
11. Say It Ain't So
12. Tired of Sex
13. You Gave Your Love to Me Softly
14. Pork and Beans
15. Across the Sea
16. The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)
17. Only in Dreams
18. Paranoid Android (Radiohead cover)
Encore:
19. Hash Pipe
20. Buddy Holly

John Cougar Mellencamp - Hammersmith Apollo

Went along with Justin, Nick and Sarah to check out the John Cougar Mellencamp show at the Hammersmith Apollo. The show was billed as "an evening with..." and actually did a pretty good job of melding JCMs contemporary folk troubadour material with his more popular rock/pop stuff from the 80s and 90s.

Kicking off promisingly enough with "Authority Song" from 1982's 'Uh-huh', the first part of the show saw the band playing more acoustic based instruments, which suited the more recent folky material like "Death Letter" and "John Cockers", although it was good to hear "Check It Out" recast in this folky mode as well.

This led into a short solo acoustic set which featured a great version of "Save Some Time To Dream" from latest album 'No Better Than This', and an acapella take on "Cherry Bomb" that featured more crowd singing that JCM.

The band rejoined briefly for a few songs, including a nice-bluegrass reworking of "Jack and Diane" that was an early highlight. Solo versions of "Jackie Brown" and "Small Town" followed, before JCM was joined by a fiddle and accordion player who took over for a lengthy coda.

This gave some time for the rest of the band to switch to electric instruments, and return to the stage to blast through rockin versions of "Rain on the Scarecrow", "Paper on Fire" and "Crumblin Down". Before the show closed on a massive high-note with "Pink Houses" and "R.O.C.K in the USA".

Strangely, despite still having a little time left on the curfew - the band didn't return for an encore, which was disappointing as it was really with the last few electric songs that the band really started to take flight.



Full setlist:
1. Authority Song
2. No One Cares About Me
3. Death Letter
4. John Cockers
5. Walk Tall
6. The West End
7. Check It Out
8. Save Some Time To Dream
9. Cherry Bomb
10. Don't Need This Body
11. Easter Eve
12. Jack & Diane
13. Jackie Brown
14. Longest Days
15. Small Town
16. Rain on the Scarecrow
17. Paper in Fire
18. Crumblin' Down
19. If I Die Sudden
20. Pink Houses
21. R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.