Waking Eyes Play Weezer

Sneaky Dee's

Toronto, ON

on Feb 10 2009

Jen White (CHARTattack)

02/11/2009 4:30pm

I couldn't believe the crowd that gathered for a Weezer tribute show on a Tuesday night. But as the evening went on, a few things became a little clearer: a) The Waking Eyes love Weezer's Blue Album; b) Weezer fans love other Weezer fans; and c) You can't really go wrong for a five-buck cover.

The show started at 10 p.m. with comical MC Serb Superb, who made up raps as a band jammed behind him. The show's promo flyer said Superb really liked Weezer, but the only thing coming close to the California quartet was when he briefly got the crowd into a Weezer call-and-response frenzy.

Superb mostly rapped about stealing hats from people near the front of the stage. For someone so concerned about head coverings, Superb sure loved disrobing. About three-quarters of the way through his set, while I was in line at the bar, the rapper apparently stripped down to his skivvies. He apologized for his nuts peeking out of his underoos, and I was pretty thankful I was so far back I couldn't see the spectacle.

Classic early Weezer B-sides were played over the speakers between sets — including "Mikel And Carli," "Suzanne" and "My Evaline" — which I thought was a pretty nice touch.

The Waking Eyes (who played under the name Surf Wax Americans) played Weezer's entire Blue Album. It was quite the feat, but the boys have done this plenty of times before — and it showed.

Considering I've listened to the Blue Album 24,672 times, I must say they know their shit and were pretty damn true to the original recording. The Waking Eyes are also stacked in the vocals department, so it was no problem to pull off awesome harmonies, especially on "Holiday."

The floor felt like it was going to give way from the very first notes of "My Name Is Jonas" until the very last bass notes of "Only In Dreams." The majority of the smiling crowd members bopped and sang along to the entire set. While I figured the audience would go nuts for "Buddy Holly," there was even more collective zeal for "In The Garage," "My Name Is Jonas" and "The World Has Turned And Left Me Here." I forgot that the place was packed with hardcore Weezer fans.

While the Waking Eyes' set was littered with myriad technical difficulties, the crowd in the packed Dee's didn't seem to mind and the band stumbled through it with some pretty amusing banter. These moments made the performance all the more endearing, and I overheard more than a few people singing The Waking Eyes' praises after they left the stage.

Cio Cio San And The Pink Triangles (who could have possibly been Toronto band Arietta) played Pinkerton in its entirety. Vocalist/guitarist (and CHARTattack contributor) Shehzaad Jiwani joked he didn't know why his band were following The Waking Eyes because they were going to play much worse than the previous band's spot-on efforts for Blue. God bless 'em. It might've been sloppy as all hell, but the quartet sure poured their heart and soul into it.

The crowd was a bit sparse when Cio Cio San took the stage, but Sneaky's started to fill up again as their set went on. Jiwani stated over and over that he wanted everyone to have fun, and encouraged the crowd to sing along and even come on stage should they feel so inclined.

While only a couple of guys took up the offer early on, Jiwani later got the stage filled with audience members (including two members of Oh No Forest Fires) for "El Scorcho." Despite the stage being packed with singers, an emo-looking dude stole one of the mics to (unfortunately) sing (very loudly) about half the song himself.

While album closer "Butterly" is a pretty depressing track, Cio Cio beefed it up with some louder teaser chords before they finally broke into a Mudhoney song. The gig then seemed to switch from Weezer tribute to '90s tribute and, while that era definitely holds a special place in my heart, it was time to call it a night.

For someone who lived on the outskirts of Canada and never got the live Weezer experience during those exciting early days, it was great to finally hear these two seminal albums in a live setting.