Weezer in August 1996 had just set off on a year-long tour in support of Pinkerton, an album that many today consider either their best or second-best offering, but critics and cash registers back then weren't so sure.
The critical and financial drop off from the band's smash triple-platinum 1994 self-titled debut was so dramatic, singer/guitarist Rivers Cuomo grew a fuzzy beard and checked out for a few years. He questioned everything because he thought the band had avoided the sophomore slump with an even-better LP, and yet Pinkerton was met with an initial meh.
“[Pinkerton] was supposed to be our magnum opus and it just got destroyed," he told NME, "and it’s almost like Game Over for our band”.
But in August '96 the tour had just begun. Hopes were high. After a few big summer festivals, the band settled in at the Garage in London, a cozy 600-capacity rock club.
The perfect place to introduce Europe to a couple new albums from this magnum opus: "The Good Life" and "Falling For You."
After the success of the Blue Album, Rivers decided to do two things: get surgery on one of his legs so it would be as long as the other, and go study music at Harvard as it heeled.
The first two songs he wrote while in absolute pain at the Ivy League school were: "Pink Triangle" about yearning for a woman who doesn't like men; and "The Good Life" which is about the agony he was going through recovering from the surgery.
Broken, beaten down
Can't even get around
Without an old man cane
I fall and hit the ground
Shivering in the cold
I'm bitter and alone
Super sad until the hook where he sings about returning to the rock star life of his recent past:
And I don't wanna be an old man anymore
It's been a year or two since I was out on the floor
Shaking booty, making sweet love all the night
It's time I got back to the good life
It's exactly the type of song that made people love the album once they got into it, but the video that introduced it was not super good. Especially when compared to the Spike Jonze masterpieces of the Blue Album: the Happy Days spoof of "Buddy Holly" and the extension of their blue album cover in "Undone" -- filmed via one single shot.
"The Good Life's" video did not have any of that imagination and charm and was easily forgettable. Ironic, since it is arguably a better song that "Undone," but that's the power of a creative music video.
Without veering off into the Matt Damon skit on SNL about Pinkerton, it feels like most people who love Weezer have the warmest spot in their hearts for the album.
And because of that, fans were thrilled when "Falling For You" was performed with the LA Philharmonic at the Disney Hall in April 2021 - a time when social distancing had become the norm, which is why no one was in the audience.
Near the end of the August '86 show at the Garage, the band played a minute of Iron Maiden's "The Trooper." Rivers, like most lovers of metal, was a big fan of the galloping tune with the staccato opening from Piece of Mind.
Listening to this brief recording of the show, it sounds like the whole band was into it.
Of the Top 40 most-played songs Weezer has performed live, "The Good Life" is #14 and "Falling For You" is #40.
Weezer is currently in the US where they will be touring with Spoon and White Reaper through Sept. 3 on the Indie Rock Road Trip.
Tickets available through their website.
