BY ELKE MERMIS
I don't dig '90s nostalgia. I find it creepy and unnecessary, and frankly, it makes me feel old as hell. But when bands like Blink-182 and Weezer roll around -- on the same billing, no less -- I'm more than willing to shake off my hang-ups, slather on the eyeliner and get a little angsty for the night.
Geared up for some serious high school nostalgia, I caught both of these bands -- two of the '90s most legendary pop-punk acts -- at the end of the daylong Buzz Beach Ball, hosted by KRBZ 96.5 FM, and I wasn't disappointed ...about the nostalgic part, at least.
With matching athletic jackets, thick-rimmed glasses and a tight, poppy execution, Weezer lives every rock nerd's dream -- they geek out, and people love them for it. Rocking out a crowd full of soccer moms, their daughters, and bespectacled fans who clearly just crawled out from behind their MacBook Pros for the first time in weeks, frontman Rivers Cuomo effortlessly revved the crowd with his manic antics and nerdy comments, bouncing on his personal trampoline and serenading fans with sing-songy commentary: "Thank you, people. You are the C battery that we plug into our soundsystem." (Or something like that.)
Weezer's only awkward moment naturally came during their most awkward hit, "Island in the Sun." As Cuomo painfully orchestrated the audience's participation (he actually asked us to hum "in thirds;" the boozy confusion emanating from the crowd was almost visible), "Island in the Sun" felt a bit more like high school choir practice than a rock show. But aside from this endearing misstep, Weezer rocked a largely flawless set, nailing their hit-heavy set list with manic, crowd-pleasing energy and a winning punch of ironic humor.
Stoked for the next headliner, the crowd salivated for half an hour between sets -- and Blink-182 didn't skimp on the special effects. With an intense explosion of lights and sound, Blink ripped into their first number of the night as a black curtain cascaded to the ground, sounding loud, proud, and rip-roaringly awesome as ever.
Bros roared; girls screamed; children cried, and it was beautiful. But sadly, Blink's game severely deteriorated as the night went on as the guys showed their seamy side -- and not just in terms of show quality.
It was clear from the beginning that Blink-182 was feeling spunky, with frontman Tom DeLonge bouncing off the walls and sounding off in his signature pop-punk whine: "Hey Mark, do you know what Kansas City is? Kansas City is a slut, and you and I are totally tag-teaming that shit." Of course, this gets a pretty resounding chuckle out of the crowd -- hell, we ain't no prudes. But while funny at first, DeLonge quickly ran his sophomorism into the ground, from yelling lame exclamations like "Masturbate!" to switching up Blink's lyrics, bringing lewd to a whole new level: I'm so sick of handjobs/I hate them.
Now, admittedly, a good amount of Blink's appeal is in their profoundly immature, deliciously slimy catalogue, 75 percent of which is comprised of crass, teenage-boy rock. I mean, these guys wrote an album called Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. Come on. But even I wasn't prepared for just how sleazy Blink-182's on-stage banter was. Standing smack-dab in the middle of a sea of drunkies, nerds, and teens, I was treated to the surreal experience of watching a small family (with 13-year-old daughter in tow) become so freaked out by Blink-182's explicit references to the dirty deed that their tween actually burst into tears in the middle of the show. Kind of a buzz-kill (no pun intended...ugh).
And, while Blink-182 did have its truly stellar moments (most notably tracks like "Miss You" and "Feeling This"), between DeLonge losing his voice, flubbing lyrics and at one point, flipping off the audience, I wasn't feeling it. And judging from the throngs of people flooding out of Sandstone mid-performance, a good amount of the crowd seemed pretty fed-up as well.
Blink-182 may not have played nice -- or particularly well -- but, when most of the crowd's got a beer in hand and all your lyrics memorized, nostalgia conquers all. And of course, nothing can compare to the mind-boggling irony of thousands of drunk 20- and 30-somethings holding up their beers, and chanting, like it's 1999, "What's my age again?"
Weezer set list:
War Pigs / Hash Pipe
Troublemaker
Undone (Sweater Song)
Surf Wax America
Perfect Situation
(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To
Say It Ain't So
My Name Is Jonas
Island In The Sun
Why Bother?
Pork And Beans
Beverly Hills
Buddy Holly
Should I Stay Or Should I Go (The Clash Cover)
Blink-182 set list
Dumpweed
Feeling This
The Rock Show
What's My Age Again?
It's Obvious
I Miss You
Stay Together For the Kids
Down
Always
Stockholm Syndrome
First Date
Man Overboard
Going Away to College
Not Now
All the Small Things
Reckless Abandon
Josie
Anthem Part 2
Encore:
Carousel
Dammit
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Chillax everyone, it wasn't that bad. I can't imagine why some girl started crying, that is just odd. Most kids that age giggle when they hear things they shouldn't have heard. While the comments were a bit excessive, they weren't that obscene. What did you all expect anyways?
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