US rock band Weezer eat durian, sing NDP song at Singapore gig
You have to give it to Weezer – they sure know how to endear themselves to local fans.
At their sophomore Singapore show on Wednesday night at The Star Theatre, the American alternative rock stalwarts performed the National Day Parade favourite Home, just as frontman Rivers Cuomo promised they would in an earlier interview with The Straits Times.
He even ate durian on stage and led the crowd in making several hearty “yam seng” toasts.
“That’s damn shiok, man,” declared the 53-year-old singer, who put on plastic gloves before digging into the pungent yellow-fleshed fruit, a beloved delicacy among Singaporeans.
Weezer’s version of Home, originally sung by local Mandopop star Kit Chan and composed by Dick Lee, was solid too.
Cuomo started the ballad accompanied only by his acoustic guitar and guitarist Brian Bell, who switched to playing keyboards. Drummer Patrick Wilson and bassist Scott Shriner joined in at the second verse, adding a boost to the rhythm section.
“Singapore, we love you lah,” said Cuomo, who probably picked up some Singlish from local fans whom he had been interacting with online and in person before the concert.
The crowd-pleasing antics at the 90-minute gig would come as no surprise to Weezer fans, as the quartet are known to tailor their live shows to suit local audiences.
At their previous Singapore gig in 2016, for example, they made up a song for national swimmer Joseph Schooling and celebrated his triumph of winning Singapore’s first Olympic gold.
On Wednesday, the 3,500-strong audience was a mix of young Gen Zs and older Gen X fans, who likely followed the band since they rode the crest of the alternative rock boom of the early 1990s.
There were plenty of songs from Weezer’s breakthrough eponymous 1994 debut dubbed The Blue Album due to the colour of the cover – an enduring release that helped define the blueprint for many indie rock and emo bands that came after them.
Even the younger fans were seen singing along enthusiastically to early hits such as Undone – The Sweater Song and Say It Ain’t So.
Weezer also included Susanne, a non-album B-side track from 1994 that Cuomo explained was about a kind staff member at their former record company Geffen. She always made time for them even though she was busy handling more famous rock acts such as Guns N’ Roses.
Tracks from another cult classic, their second album Pinkerton (1996), also made it to the set list, albeit with updated lyrics.
For example, on the song El Scorcho, the original line “I asked you to go to the Green Day concert” was replaced with “I asked you to go to the BTS concert”, referencing the massively popular K-pop boy band.
Cuomo seemed to be in a playful mood, looking goofy in a cowboy hat during the sprawling and genre-hopping performance of The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations On A Shaker Hymn), while Bell occasionally busted out some quirky dance moves.
While Weezer are certainly prolific – they released two albums in 2021 and four EPs in 2022 – critics have felt their newer material failed to match the emotional resonance of their earlier output.
Perhaps such sentiments influenced the set list. Very few recent tunes were played, although Thank You And Good Night from one of the 2022 EPs, SZNZ: Summer, was the perfect closer of the main set.
The group returned to the stage minutes later for the encore, wrapping up with one of their most famous singles, the earworm Buddy Holly.
A populist move, no doubt, but one totally in line with the fan service tone of the show.
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