Story and photos by Tony Bonyata
Last Thursday night Summerfest boasted its single strongest show this year with the double bill of alt-rock heroes Pixies and Weezer. While many in the audience were too young to remember when the Pixies first introduced the world to their angst-ridden, quirky brand of alternative rock back in the late '80s, not to mention even Weezer when they first hit the airwaves with their mid-'90s hit "Undone (The Sweater Song)," that certainly didn't detour the many hip Milwaukee youths to come out in droves to pay homage to these two important acts.
The Pixies opened up with a fierce set of songs from their four-album back-catalogue, including highlights such as the aggro-punk numbers "Tame," "Planet of Sound" and "Vamos," as well as crowd favorites from their 1989 breakthrough album Doolittle "Monkey Gone To Heaven," "Wave of Mutilation" and "Here Comes Your Man."
Looking healthier and happier than before, bassist / vocalist Kim Deal delivered quaint lead vocal performances during the numbers "In Heaven" as well as the closing crowd pleaser "Gigantic." Lead vocalist/ guitarist Frank Black, on the other hand, seemed to have put on even a few more extra pounds since the band spun through town last year. The added bulk, however, didn't stop Black from adding amazing vocals and guitars throughout his performance.
Maybe in a response to his forthcoming solo effort "Honeycomb," which finds Black mining the sounds of Americana for inspiration, the frontman performed most of the first half of the show on acoustic guitar, which gave many of the numbers a broader canvas for guitarist Joey Santiago to add his fiery leads onto.
With no stage banter to bridge songs together, the band ripped and snorted hastily from one song to the next without leaving time for the audience to catch their breath. It made for an exhilarating ride, yet somehow the magic of their youth (and even the spark they possessed for their first reunion tour last year) seemed to be diminishing. Maybe it's the lack of any new material over the the last fourteen years [and thanks in advance, gang, for not including your below par number "Bam Thwok" recorded last year], but, if you ask me, it seems like it's more about the money now than the music. And, as unfortunate as it is with a band this great, it's starting to show.
Weezer, on the other hand, emerged in front of a large backdrop of tribal serpents and foliage to perform an astonishing set of catchy alt-rock hits that melded whip-smart pop songcraft with tinges of heavy metal guitar riffs and punk rock sensibilities, all neatly stuffed into a plastic pocket protector.
Dressed in a mishmash of dorkwad attire (red plaid jacket, horn-rimmed glasses, and red stripped polo shirt) the nerdy Rivers Cuomo looked about as far from a rock & rolll frontman as he could get. Yet that didn't stop this diminutive musician from laying down some lofty metal guitar riffs and tight angst-ridden vocals, most notably on the closing track "Hash Pipe."
It was apparent that this band has been performing together for quite some time as the foursome locked into powerhouse renditions of hits such as the opening track "Say It Ain't So," "We Are All On Drugs," "Buddy Holly" and "Undone (The Sweater Song)." Even their latest single "Beverly Hills," which, on record, sounds like a blatant attempt to attract twelve-year old punk-pop fans, came off wonderfully as the band added a well-deserved meatier edge to the number.
Despite Pixies enjoyable run-through of some great songs, it was Weezer who stole the bill with a walloping set played out as if they still had everything to lose.
