Easy being green

Weezer

With Saves the Day, Ozma

Tonight, 7:30 p.m.

Mellon Arena, all…

Weezer

With Saves the Day, Ozma

Tonight, 7:30 p.m.

Mellon Arena, all ages, $29

(412)642-1800

In the last lines of Weezer’s second album, Pinkerton, frontman Rivers Cuomo sings “I ain’t never coming back… I’m sorry.” Strangely enough, after Pinkerton’s commercial and critical achievement failed to match that of their 1994 debut, it almost seemed as though Weezer was never coming back.

Over the next few years, the band basically disappeared, its members worked on side projects and rumors surfaced that Cuomo had completely gone mad. Meanwhile, a cult of sorts developed around Pinkerton, an energetic but beautiful album about romantic frustration and rejection.

After four years, Weezer finally resurfaced. They started touring (and selling out) clubs all over the country, and then released their fourth studio album last May, which, like their 1994 debut, was also titled Weezer. The record became popularly known as “the Green Album,” due to the lime green background in front of which the band poses on the album cover.

With this release, it seems as though Weezer made an uncanny stylistic return to their successful first album, which in the same way became known as “the Blue Album” due to its cover’s blue background. Even the songwriting style on it is reminiscent of (but nowhere as good as) the band’s debut, full of power pop party sing-alongs.

“The Green Album” was panned by most critics and disappointed numerous Weezer fans with higher expectations of the band’s resurrection. On the other hand, it has also been a huge commercial success, and went platinum last September. Its three singles, “Hash Pipe,” “Island in the Sun” and “Photograph” have been all over modern rock radio and MTV. They even found their way onto European airwaves. Needless to say, Weezer’s fan base has only continued to grow. While they were once playing only small clubs, they’re now playing huge arenas.

So it’s not peculiar to find Weezer playing at Mellon Arena tonight, with token emo bands Ozma and Saves the Day opening up for them. It promises to be quite a show – at least once Weezer steps on stage, strums the first chord of their opening song and a humongous ‘W’ made of light bulbs illuminates the stage.

There’s something you’ll notice about Rivers Cuomo these days: he looks happy and he’ll actually talk to the audience between songs. He’s not the estranged, misunderstood, silent genius that everyone thought him to be. He no longer puts personal implications into the songs he writes. It’s almost like Weezer on Prozac.

With another album due out in April, supposedly titled Maladroit, it’s all smiles for Cuomo and company. You can count on them to give you another array of hum-able radio hits. And for those who long for emotional angst of the Pinkerton era, it’s more than a lost cause. Weezer is on an island in the sun. They ain’t never coming back.

-T.J. Doggett, The Pitt News