Weezer set ‘Feels Like Summer’
Everything from art metal to hardcore rap played Boston Calling at the Harvard Athletic Complex this year, but there was still proof that you can’t go wrong with the simple beauty of a well-turned pop song. Or in Weezer’s case, a couple dozen of them. The band’s early evening set played like an official kickoff to summer, opening and closing with two of their most goodtimey songs (“Hash Pipe” and “Buddy Holly,” with a confetti shower at the end) and coming across like a perfect beach soundtrack. They even introduced a new single, “Feels Like Summer,” which played down their usual big guitars for hip-hop tapeloops, and sounded perfect for July evenings.
But of course, things are never quite that simple in Weezer’s world: Breezy as it sounds, “Feels Like Summer” is actually about a romantic partner who’s recently died. Most of Rivers Cuomo’s best songs have an underlying melancholy, and it wasn’t so underlying in the latter part of the set, which had cathartic singalongs on “King of the World” and “Say It Ain’t So.” For all the clever wordplay and catchy hooks in Weezer songs, this is still Cuomo’s lonely hearts club band.
The crowds were so thick at Boston Calling yesterday that the sound couldn’t always cut through, especially at the red and green stages (Weezer played the larger blue stage). If you were further back for the early-evening sets by Run the Jewels and Cage the Elephant, the view was still decent, but the sound was a muddle. Too bad, because the latter band does a spirited update of melodic powerchord rock in The Who/ Cheap Trick vein. And Run the Jewels, fueled by the buddy chemistry of frontmen El-P and Killer Mike, is currently one of the most progressive acts in hip-hop, with politically charged lyrics that managed to carry through the sound mix.
Local favorites Buffalo Tom played before the big crowds showed up, and fit most of their radio hits (wrapping up with “Taillights Fade”) into a 45-minute set. They also claimed to be the band with the shortest distance to travel: According to bassist/singer Chris Colbourn, “We live so close that my kids just called me to turn it down.”