Greatest Live Sets: Weezer Bridge The Gap Between Blue & Pinkerton, 1995
In 1995, Weezer were at their creative peak. In the past year they had released their self-titled debut album to universal acclaim and were praised for effortlessly combining Beach Boys-esque Pop sensibilities and blending them with raw, 90s Power Pop guitars.
Little did leader Rivers Cuomo and the rest of the band know that by leaning into the more raw and jagged segments only glimpsed at in their first album, that their second album would be a commercial disappointment and baffle many critics who expected The Blue Album Part II.
History would win out and prove those critics wrong, as that forthcoming 1996 album, Pinkerton, is now widely regarded as on-par with (if not greater than to some) The Blue Album.
But here in February of 1995, we find ourselves privy to a moment in time smack between what came before and what would be coming the following year. Weezer were on a promotional tour of France and had recorded a six-song live set for a small studio crowd as part of French radio station France Inter’s Black Sessions series.
What makes this set stand out and have the audio potency that it does? All six of these songs are from The Blue Album, but every single one has a stripped down, raw energy to them. It’s like a sneak peek into where the band was headed.
Sometimes, albums have a song or two that foreshadow where they might be headed in the future. On The Blue Album, that song is ‘The World Has Turned And Left Me Here’. A track that is exactly the kind of jagged, self-loathing Power Pop gem that would be Pinkerton’s stock & trade and the song never sounded more like it belonged on that album than it does here.
A traditionally upbeat song like ‘Buddy Holly’ is given a renewed urgency & menace, thanks to some truly biting guitar work. While ‘No One Else’ threads the needle between the two albums entirely by managing to still be true to the original studio cut but with a sort-of fed-up-with-it vocal performance from Rivers that would inform some of the key emotions on Pinkerton.
If you’ve never heard Weezer like this before, then you are truly in for a treat. While six songs at 25 minutes long might only be a taste to some, over being a full meal, the material that is here provides a great document of a band in transition. One that is about to take a hard left when the entire world wants them to go right. In a year’s time, this whole Weezer experiment is going to begin imploding (for a few years, anyway). But here in 1995, these guys are at the peak of their powers and showing off some raw energy that only we, in the future, know will alter their direction in ways I could write an entirely different essay on. Best to sit back and enjoy this ride while it’s still going.
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