Weezer Get Post-Ironic, Play Most Rock Star Show Ever at Osheaga

Weezer was a band that entered the mainstream by defying it -- they repped the nerdy underdog in a pop world ruled by the cool kids. Hell, they practically invented emo with their album 'Pinkerton.' But many years have gone by since Rivers Cuomo was first anointed King Dork by legions of awkward youth. Their career's second career wind came via an ironic take on rock star life and gave the group new legions of non-nerdy fans.

Earlier this year, some longtime followers accused Weezer of jumping the shark by playing an AOL Sessions with the unhippest of cats, Kenny G. But if the band's Sunday night headlining set at the Osheaga festival was any indication, the haters have it all wrong.

The band is not being unhip to be ironic; they seem to have created a new genre of musical appreciation: post-irony. It's no longer enough for the band to mock rock star excess, they now revel in it to the point of out-committing the very thing they're mocking.

Cuomo went out of his way to perform every "rock star" move known to man, including, but not limited to, smashing a mini-guitar, jumping into the drums, batting balls and toilet paper rolls out of the air with his guitar, jumping into the crowd, stealing hats, looking through purses, appearing on adjacent stages to the surprise of Metric's road crew, appearing at the back of the stands before rushing through the 25,000 strong crowd to get back onstage, throwing the camera into his crotch during a sexually explicit lyric and, of course, humping inflatable beach balls.

Oh, and bassist Scott Shriner wore a kilt. Why a kilt, you may ask? Why not?

There even came a point where Rivers addressed his own band in third person. "Hey Weezer," the bespecled frontman said during the intro to 1994's 'The Sweater Song,' "remember playing the [Montreal venue] Spectrum in 1995? The crowd was nuts, we played every song we knew and when we were done and went to the dressing room, they started throwing chairs and the place was wrecked. We never got to play an encore."



This time, Cuomo encored with their now-legendary cover of MGMT's 'Kids' mashed-up with Lady Gaga's 'Poker Face. ' Performed while wearing a blond wig. Seriously.

There were, of course, moments of 'realism' -- a quick banter break between Shriner and Cuomo about the lack of ice in Montreal coffee shops was a moment of good ol' fashion Weezer awkwardness. But just as things were sliding back to normal, the bassist inexplicably took lead vocals on 'Dope Nose.' Why? Because!

Therein lies the genius of the show. While old Weezer proved Cuomo to be both incredibly in touch with the pop world and yet socially phobic enough to be appalled by it, the Weezer of 2010 simply doesn't care about where the lines are drawn. And that post-ironic approach is what makes them more relevant than ever.