The 250 lucky ticket holders at the Weezer show on Monday night were so glad they could make it to Constellation Room because they got an incredible special show.
Weezer, whose last gig was in the relatively spacious 500 capacity Lodge Room in LA, did not revisit their debut LP as they had in March, but instead delivered one rarity after another and sent the crowd home with a cover of the Hole hit "Celebrity Skin."
Exit: My Name is Jonas. Enter: My Name is Never Was.
The Weezer fans who made it to the show in Santa Ana (about a 10 minute drive from Disneyland) probably knew after the second song what a rare treat Rivers and the boys had in store for them when the quartet opened with "Cleopatra" followed by "Eulogy for a Rock Band," both from the oft-overlooked 2014 album Everything Will Be Alright in the End.
Would they be playing that gem of a record from front to back as they plan on doing in their forthcoming tour?
That's what the raucous crowd probably thought when "Anonymous" came next, another tune from EWBAITE.
"Cleopatra" hadn't been performed since 2016, "Eulogy..." since 2015, and "Anonymous" had only been played 13 times before the other day - the last time was in 2014.
Instead of playing the whole album, Weezer kept digging into their rich treasury of archives. When you think about how much material Rivers has written just in the last five years, they could do several shows of just live debuts.
This show had two from way back. The first, "Sheila Can Do It," is a track they'd been kicking around since '97 that ended up on Van Weezer, but never played until Monday.
They also live-debuted another song with a woman's name in it, "Any Friend of Diane's" from Pacific Daydream circa 2017.
Of the 21 songs they played, four were from OK Human, all of which got their live debuts from the Covid-era Walt Disney Hall performance you probably watched in your home decked out in your Weezer Snuggie. And none of them had been played live since - until Monday.
One of those tunes, "Here Comes The Rain" is so sweet you might accidentally kiss someone on the cheek if they pass by. Beware.
It was a spring cleaning of rarities down there in The OC.
Everything must go!
"Troublemaker" snippet, not heard since 2016. "The Angel and One," shelved after 2013. "Slave", shackled since 2016. They all were celebrated and sung and loved and provided the soundtrack of 250 minds being blown.
The last seven songs were far more familiar and then Weezer bid kids adieu.
Only to return with that delicious riff Billy Corgan gave to Courtney Love for "Celebrity Skin."
May we all wake up in our makeup after a show like that.
Weezer are playing next week at the Shaky Knees Festival, then the following week at the Wonderfront Fest, then they start their Voyage to the Blue Planet Tour with the Flaming Lips and Dinosaur Jr.
A few of those gigs are already sold out so grab your tix now while you can on their website.