SANTA BARBARA BOWL
If normal concerts have an opening act and a feature, the August 5th Weezer show at the Santa Barbara Bowl was more like a three-stage party. Andrew McMahon came first and took the usually laid back early arrivers to astonishing heights, escalating from jazzy piano confessional soul of “All Our Lives,” to a pounding dance on top of the same piano after enfolding half the lawn audience under a parachute canopy. McMahon even took off running around the inside of the Bowl while singing. His seven song set included “Dark Blue,” from his old band Jack’s Mannequin and a torchy tribute to his daughter, “Cecilia and the Satellite.” The early birds were elated.
Panic! At the Disco turned elation into fan mania. Screaming whenever Las Vegas-born rocker Brendon Urie turned on his falsetto, many younger Bowl-goers knew every word and inflection in the songbook and sang along to prove it. Urie plays a freshened-up version of progressive rock, a fact amply underscored by his note-perfect cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” But the songs don’t feel derivative: opening with “You Don’t Have to Threaten Me with a Good Time,” and moving through almost 20 songs in an hour, Urie’s focus sharpened as evening melted into a dazzling light show night, especially with “Girls/Girls/Boy” and the croony “Nine in the Afternoon.” Urie is clearly a heartthrob. He does a mean back flip too.
Weezer turned the whole scene into celebratory mode with the new-ish “California Kids” but sealing the deal with “Hash Pipe,” a song to light up the dominantly Gen-X crowd. The stage set, a beach party with drummer Patrick Wilson in lifeguard tower, was a goofy commentary on Beach Blanket Bingo movies, but it didn’t prevent the Los Angeles rockers from mixing mid-career songs like “Dope Nose,” (played in a crazy challenging medley) with big radio hits like “Island in the Sun.” But the band transcended FM fame with a newer song “King of the World” melding into “Only in Dreams” played like pure psychedelia. The band might be made up of “cool dads” as frontman River Cuomo put it, but he even took off into the Bowl crowd to play, turning what might have been an oldies show into a party in three parts. The encore, of course, included “Buddy Holly.” He would have been proud.
Check out all the show photos by Santa Barbara Bowl House Photographer, A Arthur Fisher, on our photo library.
D.J. Palladino. Palladino has been attending, reviewing and enjoying Bowl shows since 1971.
