Photos and Review by Jeff Palmucci
Galleries: Weezer, The Pixies
The Pixies and Weezer stopped by Foxwood’s Grand Theater last week on their world tour. This is my first time shooting at this venue. Piece of advice: park in the lot near the show. I parked across the complex, and it took me a while to find the theater. That place is huge. Being a Saturday night, it was also hopping. There’s a ton of bars and restaurants (not just the casino) and lots up people having fun, both before and after the concert let out around 11. No signs of slowing down.
The Pixies came out and played an amazing 23 song set. This may be surprising to those of you who know how old I am, but I’m a relatively recent Pixies fan. Of course I knew the big hits, like Gigantic. However, I never really listened to them until a marathon car trip from Boston to Princeton to do a bunch of college interviews. My friend Alex loaded up my Spotify playlist with a bunch of Pixies tracks, and I became a fan. They played all of those tracks that night, including Debaser, Wave of Mutilation, Here Comes Your Man, Hey, and Where is My Mind? Point being, the set list skews towards their earlier stuff.
Weezer came out with a rendition of Buddy Holly in barbershop quartet style, reprising their performance on Jimmy Fallon. Give it a listen.
Then they proceeded to put on a generous 22 song set, including a ton of my favorites: My Name is Jonas, Undone, Hash Pipe, Island in the Sun, Perfect Situation Beverly Hills, and Buddy Holly. Seems like I have a lot of Weezer favorites.
They also played their cover of Toto’s Africa, which confuses my wife to no end. She keeps asking me “Why?” and I keep telling her the internet made them do it, and I have the proof right here. Happy Pam?
In fact, I’m so inspired by that twitter account that I’m calling on Weezer to do a cover of Slayer’s Raining Blood. Come on guys! Come through for me!
If they do ever pull that off, they’ll already have the pyrotechnics to do the song justice. Seriously. They had flame throwers going off for Hash Pipe (and a couple others) and flash bombs going off for Beverly Hills. It was pretty awesome, as I myself have a mild pyromaniac streak.
Cuomo came up to the soundboard and played In The Garage solo in the middle of the set. I completely lucked out because that was right in front of my seat. See the guy in the jumbotron holding up the phone. That’s me. I photoshopped my gut a little. Artistic license.
They played a smattering of songs from the new album, and I would’ve actually preferred they went heavier on that. The Black album’s pretty good. Check out their YouTube series, Black Metal Hub, that they put together to promote it. It’s freakin’ hilarious.
I had a great time at the show and the tour continues through September. On top of that, thanks to me we can now look forward to Weezer’s foray into thrash metal. You’re welcome.