Weezer proves a Pershing Center crowd pleaser

Weezer's concert at Pershing Center on Sunday night was as hot and humid as July 4.

Only difference: There were more flashing strobes, loud noises and smoke at the concert than at any Independence Day celebration.

Sunday's show proved Weezer has earned its place in modern music legend as the quintessential pretty-boy punk-rock superstars.

Its 16-song set canvassed the last eight years of its musical history, including some tunes that will be released on its forth-coming album, "Maladroit."

When the show began, Weezer stood in front of a clean stage, its Marshall amps all lined up nicely, a simple backdrop of gigantic metal plates hanging behind them.

As the set progressed, so did the stage. Lights dropped down from behind the metal plates, the drum stand (which stood taller than the diminutive Rivers Cuomo) opened to reveal a sparkling Weezer-style "W."

Yet one would think a band with as much clout as Weezer should be able to share the stage with stellar opening acts, but Sunday night's show proved that opener selection can be hit and miss.

The first band of the night, AM Radio, virtually was unknown when the band stepped onstage. But, in regular Midwestern kindness, the five-piece act from lazy L.A. was welcomed onstage as if it was what everyone was waiting for.

But soon the crowd realized that a band named after the geeky side of the modulation barrier is about as entertaining as AM radio.

With a lead singer like Kevin Ridel, who seemed to be doing a bad imitation of Stone Temple Pilots' Scott Weiland, AM Radio's music was filled with meaningless and cliché lyrics like "Wanna know you/ Wanna feel you/ Wanna love you/ But you're too real."

But Lincoln's audience stuck in there, clapping along when Ridel asked them to, not realizing that AM Radio was going to play a cover of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," turning Pershing Center into one big junior high graduation dance.

The better of Weezer's openers was Pete Yorn, who's 2001 album "musicforthemorningafter" has received acclaim from critics and general listeners alike.

Yorn and his band flew into Lincoln from Memphis just moments before AM Radio took the stage.

While still on tour with Weezer, Yorn played three festivals in the South. Sunday was the first time the musician had ever played two time zones in one day.

Yorn took the stage without a sound check - and almost without a voice - making the first two songs as rough as his self-proclaimed "schwaggy appearance."

Danielle Pell, a freshman biology major at Nebraska Wesleyan University, didn't seem to mind. "He's sexy," she commented after the show. "He's talented, and he makes good music that isn't mainstream."

Once Yorn revved his motor, he showed that great American rock 'n' roll required neither sleep nor a fresh voice.

During his seven-song set, Yorn played rocking covers of The Smiths' "Panic" and David Bowie's "China Girl."

But it was his original hit, "Life on a Chain," that fared best from his ground vocal chords.

During "Murray," Yorn was bathed in earthy light like polished amber, the perfect setting to capture his down-home rock sound.

In a meet-and-greet session after his set, Yorn was asked why he didn't play any Bruce Springsteen covers, as he does on the bonus disc packaged with "musicforthemorningafter."

"I don't know if the Weezer kids are into Springsteen," he said, adding, "I don't know if they're into the Smiths or Bowie, but whatever."

But Yorn also said he was having a great time playing second fiddle to Weezer.

"I like the challenge of a new audience," he said.

It may have been a new audience to Yorn, but Weezer has owned this crowd for years.

Sophia Dahab, a junior at Lincoln Southeast High School, said she ordered tickets online the first day they were available "to make sure I'd be able to get them."

The concert never sold out, though, leaving Pershing Center looking three-fourths full.

But Dahab didn't mind.

"It makes it a closer community," she said.

Dahab said she had been a fan of Weezer since she was in sixth grade, when she heard their debut, self-titled album (commonly referred to as "The Blue Album") playing on her brother's stereo.

"He had a poster of 'The Blue Album' cover with them all lined up on the front," she remembers.

Her baby blue shirt read, "Weezer Kid" in puffy, iron-on letters (matching her two friends), and everyone in the audience looked like children when Weezer played tracks from "The Blue Album."

But Weezer's 2001 self-titled release (known as "The Green Album") piqued the audience's interest with more stage production.

During "Hash Pipe," gigantic, seemingly unending clouds of smoke rose to greet the audience, which perfumed itself with the scent of marijuana.

"Only In Dreams," one of the more tame songs from "The Blue Album," was played while the stage sat in billows of fog, the only lights coming from behind the band, creating an eerie and unsettling presence from a usually sunny band.

But the audience perked up when thousands of pieces of shiny ticker tape were shot into the air, falling like metallic rain on the front half of the audience (and making AM Radio's handful of glitter look even more ridiculous).

Weezer nailed every song with the precision of a master craftsman.

While still staying close to the album versions of its songs, the band changed minor things - like a slightly different drum pattern or a different guitar effect - to make the live experience truly individual.

Although some of the transitions between Weezer's short songs could have been improved, the intermissions allowed Cuomo to show his funny bone.

He and Brian Bell, Weezer's guitar player, had a lengthy discussion concerning the gauge of picks after Cuomo realized he was playing with the wrong pick.

After the audience screamed the lyrics to "My Name in Jonas," Cuomo quipped, "I think you guys are rowdier than Ames," referring to Saturday's concert in Ames, Iowa. "But you smell worse."

But Weezer was there to play music, and when it tapped its debut album, the crowd went crazy. Everyone on the floor of Pershing back to the sound booth jumped in time to songs like "Going Surfing" and "Undone - The Sweater Song."

When the chorus of "Say It Ain't So" came around, the small audience at Pershing Center responded louder than any crowd I have ever seen at the venue, engulfing Cuomo's voice in its singing.

In general, the audience seemed to eat up songs from "The Blue Album," digest helpings from "The Green Album," and although the majority didn't know the difference between "Pinkerton," Weezer's 1996 release, and "Maladroit," they viewed the unknown songs as the dessert they were happy to have.

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