Weezer’s Blue Album was the first cassette I purchased with a gift certificate at Tower Records (I had two certificates so I also bought CrazySexyCool and sang that “Red Light” song without any idea what it meant). While I fantasized about one day being in a band, I didn’t do anything about it in middle school because I had no talent other than standing around and making snide remarks (still true) at the time. These kids, however, took their love of Weezer, and probably Rock Band, to the stage and thought they were going to kill it. Well, they did. Kinda. I mean the keyboard’s dead.
Their performance starts out okay for a school talent show, but then their melancholy version of this song that I can’t recognize (NOT ‘BUDDY HOLLY”) kind of takes a swift turn off a cliff and ends with everything just falling over and everyone involved being mildly embarrassed in the way that you are when someone tries really hard but just doesn’t cut it (ie, how my parents probably feel right now).
One day these precocious rockers will look back on this, their first major concert, and laugh. But today, we laugh and cringe for them and remind ourselves of our own middle school foibles while thank the gods that the internet wasn’t a thing when we were in eighth grade, rubbing Noxzema all over our faces and putting cool stickers on our lockers.
Big ups to the rock dads who saved the day. Turn it up to eleven, dudes!