 Hot Hot Heat, Weezer, and Foo Fighters at Long Beach Arena
Cotton candy for sale, the smell of something maybe medicinal wafting through the air, $5 lemonades, people being picked up willy-nilly and thrown over barriers. Oh yes, it's time to rock.
Hot Hot Heat, the Canadian band that sounds suspiciously Brit-pop, got it started Saturday night at the Long Beach Arena. Steve Bays, the lead singer, had energy that was worthy of his bouffant hair. In other words, big. He, along with guitarist Dante DeCaro, bassist Dustin Hawthorne, drummer Paul Hawley, presented an entertaining, albeit brief show.
Then happy, hoppy rock band Weezer took the stage to the soaring strains of Wagner's Flight of the Valkyries. They started off with the oldie but goodie
"My Name is Jonas," setting the feel good, jumpy tone for a nice mix of old and new songs. Band roles also got mixed. Bassist Scott Shriner took over lead vocals on "Dopenose," guitarist Brian Bell took his turn on "Why bother?" and both did decent jobs. Drummer Patrick Wilson also took to the mic on "Photograph." He's a good drummer.
Lead singer Rivers Cuomo voice sounded strong and clear, even sweet at times on songs "Island in the Sun" and "Buddy Holly." Pinkerton fans also got a treat with "The Good Life" and "Tired of Sex" which hasn't been performed in a while.
One lucky fan, Mike from Long Beach, even got to play guitar on the "Sweater Song." Note to fans: only raise your hand and scream to be chosen if you know how to play the song. But nice try, Mike.
Weezer's backdrops reflected the easy-going chillax atmosphere the band created, with the first background portraying their album cover artwork of something scaly in black and white, and later changing to an infinity field of stars.
Shriner took over most of the emceeing duties, with Cuomo preferring to make his connection with the crowd by raising his hands. Banter was truly on the light side, with one song melding into the next. Weezer closed out their set with "Buddy Holly" and a confetti cannon, with lots of triumphant jumping from one side of stage to the other before
a final group bow before thousands of raised finger Weezer wings.
Foo Fighters's set was a study in contrasts. Whereas Weezer's stage was relatively free of decoration, Foo Fighters brought out all the trapping of an arena rock show: giant screens, jumbled heaps of speakers, a laser light show and fog machines.
While Cuomo seemed comfortable with his laconic yet energetic style, Foo's lead singer Dave Grohl's made his home in Screamland, Screamityville, at I'm-going-to-have-throat-tears-in-the-morn ing Avenue. The screamfest started with "In Your Honor," off their latest album. But Grohl showed he is master of his voicebox on "The One," alternating between all-out rage and relative normalcy. The Foos also played some of their older songs like "Everlong" and "My Hero." The band closed the night with "The Monkey Wrench."
The 10 years Foo Fighters has been together showed in the improvised jams that were sprinkled throughout the set. Locking eyes with their drummer Taylor Hawkins, Grohl, guitarist Chris Shiflett and bassist Nate Mendel riffed and bounced melodies and rhythms off each other effortlessly.
The set had other surprises, too. Drummer Taylor Hawkins came to the fore with a raspy rendition of "Cold Day In the Sun." And, in the middle of "Stacked Actress," Grohl leapt off the stage and ran to the sound board in the back. Dueling guitar arena rock then commenced as he and guitarist Chris Shiflett traded musical blasts. In a word: awesome.
Grohl also worked the crowd awesomely, whipping them into a frenzy with his amusing, comedic quips, frequent yells and ahem, titillating bits. At one point, Grohl said, "I love the love." And frankly, so did we. So did we. |
