Weezer’s Portland Show Involved Rivers Cuomo in a Rowboat, a VCR Player and, of Course, “Africa”

At Moda Center on Saturday, April 6, Portland came to party with Weezer on their co-headlining tour with The Pixies. But it was the Pixies who put on a superior greatest-hits-and-new-stuff medley.

The Pixies' set list expertly paired hits with compelling newer material that makes their post-reunion albums worthy of a fresh listen. Late arrivals in front of me walked out when they realized they missed "Where Is My Mind?" If only they knew that compared to the Pixies' other big songs, like "Monkey Gone to Heaven" and "Wave of Mutilation," Black Francis rushed through "Where Is My Mind?" with the same contempt he probably has for Fight Club fanboys.

Weezer played more covers and best-ofs than new material. Yes, they played Toto's "Africa" to full dork effect, and yes, they played their near-troll version of TLC's "No Scrubs." Former theater kids must have cringed at Weezer's midsong set changes, which told an unnecessary story the band barely, if at all, engaged. Astroworld it was not: Rivers Cuomo circled the floor-level seats in a rowboat for a few songs to get closer to the audience and to distract from a staging revamp.

Playing the "Pork and Beans" music video on an anachronistic VCR player that was wheeled onto the stage on an old-school AV cart, was an unintentionally deep moment—some fans are too young to remember that YouTube used to be for spreading music videos and time-based art instead of fascist talking points. Nobody seemed to care: On the way home, kids on the MAX talked excitedly about inoffensive Weezer hits like "Island in the Sun" and "High as a Kite." Everyone got what they wanted—a few solid hours of benign, angsty revelry.