Weezer’s last few years in arenas have functioned largely as retrospective exercises. The sold-out Return to the Blue Planet tour marked the 30th anniversary of The Blue Album; the Hella Mega stadium run positioned them alongside Green Day and Fall Out Boy as monuments of a particular radio-rock era. Both were good business, and neither was particularly about what Weezer might do next. The Gathering, which arrives at Place Bell in Laval on Saturday, September 26, makes the case that “next” is back on the table.
About the Show
The tour is a 32-city North American arena run, September 8 through October 24, with The Shins and Silversun Pickups in support. It’s a bill that could stand alone as a credible mid-2000s indie-rock event, and it signals something about Weezer’s current peer group. The occasion is The Gold Album, the band’s seventh self-titled record and 16th studio effort, due August 21 on Reprise/Warner Records. This is their first new material since 2021’s Van Weezer and their first album on this label. The production approach was unusual by modern standards: no grid, no click track, no pitch correction. Drums were cut live as the band played together, and songs were reshaped in the room. Rivers Cuomo and drummer Pat Wilson co-wrote material together for the first time since Weezer’s debut album, a collaboration that gives the record its creative premise. Cuomo described his “super-strong instinct” to hand Wilson “a turn at the wheel, as far as the overall aesthetic.” Wilson on the result: “It breathes and moves, but it’s just so together.” Scott Shriner called it “the most authentic, positive joining of the four of us in my history with the group.” The band plans to perform four or five tracks from the new album each night. The Laval date arrives five weeks after the record drops, new enough that audiences will still be orienting to the material, worked in enough that the band should have their footing with it.
Venue & Logistics
Place Bell sits in Laval, Quebec, just north of Montreal. The show is the second of two consecutive Canadian dates on this run, following Toronto at Scotiabank Arena the night before. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.; the concert begins at 7:00 p.m. The event is all-ages.
Tickets
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