Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
The year is 2024 and it is now time for Weezer to take a victory lap. The “Voyage to the Blue Planet” tour celebrates 30 years of their iconic debut album and much more. Maybe the excitement was a bit of nostalgia but it was a Friday night in Boston and the spirit of everyone walking down Causeway was contagious.
A five-minute countdown started as we all gathered for showtime. The lights were dimming, fog was filling the stage, and the space shuttle housing Weezer on stage was ready for liftoff. As the lid came off the shuttle and revealed the band, they jumped right into action with “Anonymous,” “Return to Ithaca,” and “Dope Nose.” Weezer was ready to rock the stage to its full capacity, and that’s just what they did. Up next was a string of hits including “Hash Pipe,” “Pork and Beans,” and “Beverly Hills” that welcomed the sold-out 17,000-capacity crowd to sing along.
The crowd began to settle down a bit with “Burndt Jamb” and “Any Friend of Diane’s”. In true Weezer fandom fashion, the audience members next to me began debating “which Weezer albums were good.” during these tracks. A bit of bickering later, they were shushed by fans enjoying the show before they could finish their tier list.
While the previously rumored Blue Album/Pinkerton tour never happened, Weezer threw their die-hard fans a bone with a stretch of Pinkerton songs mid-set, labeled as “The Pinkerton Asteroid Belt” on their space journey. This stretch of songs included “Getchoo,” “Why Bother?,” “Pink Triangle,” “You Gave Your Love to Me Softly,” and “Across the Sea.” With the overall positive response from fans, maybe we’ll see a Pinkerton playthrough in the coming years?
It was time to kick off the section of the night we were all waiting for. The band made a quick outfit change and headed back out onto the stage with a “Weezer” flag. Rivers planted the flag behind him as he proudly exclaimed, “That’s one small step for Weezer, one giant leap for Weezer-kind.”
Now, it’s worth mentioning that Weezer has been continuously memed by its own fan base. Listeners have made countless hour-long compilations of random lines from the Blue Album, and Weezer is in the know about this. As we kicked off the Blue Album portion of the night, Rivers gave multiple cues to the audience to have fun with it. The first notion of this was the ending bridge riff in “Buddy Holly” (the one a guy on TikTok played hundreds of times before Weezer invited him onstage), to which the audience gave a roaring applause. It didn’t stop there either. The 17,000 people in attendance made sure to yell “Wrestle with Jimmy” louder than the rest of the song, which got a chuckle out of Rivers.
After a few good bits, it was time to get serious for the final three songs. While “In the Garage” was the last hit played, people got rowdy during “Holiday” right after, which spawned a circle pit. Even the band was shocked by this. Capping off the night was the eight-minute rock opera “Only in Dreams” before they rolled the ending credits for the “Voyage to the Blue Planet” visuals. It was good to see multiple generations of fans breathing new life into these songs three decades later. While we don’t see the album ranking debates ending soon, this should hopefully satisfy the fanbase for now. We were lucky to have been a part of this night, and remaining tickets for other dates can be found HERE.
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Kyle Musser//
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