{"id":2448208,"date":"2019-08-31T00:54:22","date_gmt":"2019-08-31T06:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=312093"},"modified":"2019-08-31T00:54:22","modified_gmt":"2019-08-31T06:54:22","slug":"weezers-golden-oldies-at-jazz-aspen-labor-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/weezers-golden-oldies-at-jazz-aspen-labor-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Weezer\u2019s golden oldies at Jazz Aspen Labor Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.5528255528256\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-312093-538\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/WEEZER-GROUP--150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/WEEZER-GROUP--1024x682.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"WEEZER GROUP | Rivers Cuomo, of Weezer, performing Friday night at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience. Lynn Goldsmith photo\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>Rivers Cuomo, of Weezer, performing Friday night at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience. Lynn Goldsmith photo<\/strong><br \/>WEEZER GROUP<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/WEEZER-GROUP--1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"Rivers Cuomo, of Weezer, performing Friday night at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience. Lynn Goldsmith photo\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/WEEZER-GROUP-2-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/WEEZER-GROUP-2-1024x682.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"WEEZER GROUP 2 | Weezer performing Friday night at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience. Lynn Goldsmith photo\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"8\">\n<p><strong>Weezer performing Friday night at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience. Lynn Goldsmith photo<\/strong><br \/>WEEZER GROUP 2<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/WEEZER-GROUP-2-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"Weezer performing Friday night at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience. Lynn Goldsmith photo\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/WEEZER-LEADER-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/WEEZER-LEADER-682x1024.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"WEEZER LEADER | Rivers Cuomo, of Weezer, performing Friday night at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience. Lynn Goldsmith photo\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>Rivers Cuomo, of Weezer, performing Friday night at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience. Lynn Goldsmith photo<\/strong><br \/>WEEZER LEADER<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/WEEZER-LEADER-682x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Rivers Cuomo, of Weezer, performing Friday night at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience. Lynn Goldsmith photo\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/weezers-golden-oldies-at-jazz-aspen-labor-day\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/weezers-golden-oldies-at-jazz-aspen-labor-day\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>If you could be Weezer or you could be America\u2019s best cover band, which would you choose?<\/p>\n<p>Weezer opts for both, as evidenced in the band\u2019s breathless 75-minute set of fan-friendly Weezer favorites and covers on Friday night at the Jazz Aspen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/entertainment\/jazz-aspen-labor-day-crash-course-what-to-expect-from-headliners-weezer-john-mayer-sting-and-more\/\">Snowmass Labor Day Experience<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Weezer has enough pop hits and rock anthems of their own to keep a festival crowd singing and woo-hooing and say-it-ain\u2019t-so-ing along all night. But the band isn\u2019t content with that these days, as it\u2019s leaning into its new status as both the great \u201890s heritage act and the jukebox tribute band of the moment, layering nostalgia upon nostalgia for the masses.<\/p>\n<p>Playing to a buoyant crowd on a temperate evening in Snowmass Town Park, the band played six out of the 10 songs from their self-titled debut \u201cBlue Album\u201d from 1994, opening with \u201cBuddy Holly\u201d and \u201cSurf Wax America\u201d to set the fan-friendly tone. They actually played \u201cBuddy Holly\u201d twice \u2013 opening with it and also beginning the encore with a four-man barbershop quartet rendition that quieted the crowd to a hush.<\/p>\n<p>Sprinkled among the \u201cBlue Album\u201d songs and covers were hits from the rest of their catalog \u2013 \u201cHash Pipe,\u201d \u201cPork and Beans,\u201d \u201cBeverly Hills\u201d and \u201cIsland in the Sun.\u201d (Hardcore fans also got a gem in \u201cWaiting On You\u201d from 1996\u2019s \u201cPinkerton.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>With but a few exceptions, they played the old stuff note-perfect from the recorded versions this crowd knew well, with details matching down to samples of the recorded background party conversations on \u201cUndone (The Sweater Song).\u201d Weezer didn\u2019t show up to jam or mess around or hawk the new stuff (they didn\u2019t play anything off their new album of originals, released in March).<\/p>\n<p>They gave the people what they wanted, which has been working for them lately. When a fan-generated social media campaign pushed for the band to cover the \u201880s cheese rock staple \u201cAfrica,\u201d by Toto, in late 2017, they leaned into it and became living memes by \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/therecord\/2018\/05\/29\/615204047\/cracking-open-totos-beige-classic-africa-weezer-grants-the-internet-s-wish\">after months of online build-up<\/a> \u2013 obliging and then recording a whole album of covers with an \u201cAfrica\u201d centerpiece earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>The covers are downright irresistible in a live setting like Jazz Aspen, where the band played \u2013 along with \u201cAfrica,\u201d the first notes of which sent seemingly every cell phone camera in the crowd skyward \u2013 a mash-up of the Turtles\u2019 \u201cHappy Together\u201d and Green Day\u2019s \u201cLongview,\u201d Tears for Fears\u2019 \u201cEverybody Wants to Rule the World,\u201d A-ha\u2019s \u201cTake on Me\u201d and TLC\u2019s \u201cNo Scrubs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Singer and guitarist Rivers Cuomo delivered his stage banter and rock star theatrics with the hint of irony that\u2019s always been in Weezer\u2019s DNA, as when he called out with a smirk early on: \u201cYo Aspen! You ready for some Weezer rock?\u201d But these cover songs \u2013 even the cornier good-time covers like \u201cTake on Me\u201d and \u201cAfrica\u201d \u2013 were delivered with utmost sincerity (and the awesome soar of Weezer guitar). The covers are fun, which has also always a Weezer staple.<\/p>\n<p>The most interesting of the covers, musically, ended up being \u201cNo Scrubs,\u201d because the band had to come up with its own rock arrangements for the R&amp;B track, while the rest of the covers they pretty much play exactly like the originals. And Cuomo has always had a unique charm when he takes his hands off the guitar and raps, as he does admirably with Chilli\u2019s cocksure verses from \u201cNo Scrubs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Portugal. The Man singer\/guitarist John Gourley, in his band\u2019s hard-charging festival-opening set earlier Friday, praised Weezer lavishly and specifically cited Weezer\u2019s mastery of writing bridges, calling them \u201cthe best bridges of all time.\u201d So it made sense that a climax of Weezer\u2019s set came during \u201cMy Name is Jonas,\u201d when Cuomo, bassist Scott Shriner and guitarist Brian Bell posed in rock star formation at center-stage during, yes, the bridge before the final chorus.<\/p>\n<p>When Jazz Aspen Snowmass\u2019s Labor Day festival took off in the new millennium, it was great Baby Boomer acts that powered it to prominence \u2013 Bob Dylan (2002) and Tom Petty (2003) and Steve Miller Band (2004). By the time Weezer was closing this throwback set with \u201cSay It Ain\u2019t So\u201d on Friday night, it dawned on me that this marked a generational shift toward the new oldies and an age of nostalgia for \u201890s kids. Those of us who loved Weezer in our adolescence, and are now our 30s or 40s, found out Friday that our music now may be the nostalgia-based bread and butter of Aspen\u2019s biggest pop music festival.<\/p>\n<p>It dizzied me to realize we\u2019re as far away right now from Weezer\u2019s \u201cBlue Album\u201d \u2013 at 25 years \u2013 that the \u201cBlue Album\u201d was from the moon landing and Woodstock. Those felt like ancient history in 1994. It\u2019s enough to induce an early midlife crisis. But at least it\u2019ll have a good soundtrack.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:atravers@aspentimes.com\">atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/weezers-golden-oldies-at-jazz-aspen-labor-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rivers Cuomo, of Weezer, performing Friday night at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience. Lynn Goldsmith photoWEEZER GROUP Weezer performing Friday night at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience. Lynn Goldsmith photoWEEZER GROUP 2 Rivers Cuomo, of Weezer, performing Friday night at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience. Lynn Goldsmith photoWEEZER LEADER [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2448208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 00:30:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}