Thursday 25/08/05 Weezer @ Academy 1, Manchester

They’re good, very good, and not quite as expected. There is a feel of aggression about the band, especially Rivers and drummer Pat when he gets his turn to sing. It’s not as if they have something to prove, they have a large dedicated fan base that is constantly growing. The music isn’t played to the crowd it is thrown at them and it's gladly received - 'El Scorchio', 'Beverly Hills', 'Buddy Holly' - we are absolutely spoilt. Live they add such passion to their songs, the great songs shine and the classics wipe the floor, twice, by just blinking.

 

And if that wasn’t good enough, the encore starts with Rivers on top of the bottle bar at the side of the room for a beautiful acoustic rendition of 'Island In The Sun'. They intend to play 'Undone (The Sweater Song)' but need another guitarist so use the old trick of pulling some kid out of the audience to play. While this kid is familiarising himself with his new vantage point Rivers needs a number of hands to crowd surf him over to the stage. How cool. And it’s nice the fans are trusted not to rip any mementoes off either, you wouldn’t see someone like Brandon Flowers doing that, but then these lads have earned our respect over the years, and while they’re still doing videos with the Muppets they’re not losing it in a hurry.