Weezer 10/30/10

Well, it's finally happened.  A band that gained popularity when I was in high school hosted Chastain, the old folks home of Atlanta venues.  Sure, I've already seen the Crowes there several times but they have been around for 20 years now, I was in 5th or 6th grade then.  They did have a raucous band, J. Roddy Walston and the Business, open up for them.  Kind of an odd choice, what with their hippie image, rock-a-bluesy sound and fairly unintelligible singing, but they could bring the rock.  I haven't witnessed somebody rockin the ivories with such aggressive passion since the first time I saw Wolfmother, and this guy was in a sitting position.  At one point, he bent all the way over backwards on his stool until his head near hit the ground with his hands over his head and came springing back up to hit the next notes with his long curly brown hair, that I thought for sure would get tangled in his microphone, in tow.  Again, just an odd pairing of bands, but after only a 15 minute break, Weezer took the stage with frontman Rivers Cuomo wandering behind the stage set-up until they burst in with "Hash Pipe."  The first noticeable thing was that drummer Patrick Wilson was playing guitar for most of the show, though he got behind the skins for a couple of older tunes.  Rivers wasn't shy about getting to know the Atlanta crowd by jumping down several times and touring through the only half-filled amphitheater which enabled Mel to run over and slap hands and she was thrilled.  During one of his treks back to the stage, the band started the drum and guitar intro to Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher" which faded into their own "Pork and Beans."  Then, much to our surprise, they jammed on the 90's one-hit-wonder band Wheatus with "Teenage Dirtbag" (thought about ya Heather D.).  The group eventually ended the night with their first hit "Buddy Holly" and all squeezed on the six foot high drum-set stand in the middle of the stage to have a tribal moment, each pounding on a separate drum and/or cymbal.  Rivers had to have been pretty tired after running through the crowd 3 or 4 times, climbing on top of stacks while singing, and jumping on a mini-tramp while playing his acoustic guitar because they only played for a disappointingly short hour and 15 minutes.  Not that that time wasn't fun, but I guess it just matched the AARP sponsored park.