Dear Rivers, Pat, Brian, Scott and all former members,

Let me paint a picture for you. It was a snowy April night, which wasn’t uncommon in the town where I grew up, and a few families from my church had gathered to play games. Many rounds of cards, board games and general good times were had but like most winter gatherings in Canada, it quickly devolved into the adults drinking beer and the kids running off somewhere to do something less boring. The house we were at had it all, anything you could ever want to do, they had it. Most intriguing though for a group of ten to twelve year olds was this crazy new game called Rock Band. There were four of us, it was perfect. We set out to be the best band that our town had ever seen. As you can probably guess, we sucked but we made it through a decent part of the game on medium difficulty. One of the dads even came down and guest starred on vocals for us. The song he came down for is one that I’ll never forget. 

Courtesy: pickpic.com

I remember this part like it was yesterday. Your song “Say It Ain’t So” came on. This is my first recollection of hearing you. I’m sure I’d heard you before since this was probably around the time that “Beverly Hills” was receiving radio play but I specifically remember this rendition of Say It Ain’t So because instead of saying the right words in the chorus the aforementioned dad was singing “say it ain’t snow, it’s April and we’re sick of it”. As kids we all thought this was hilarious when it was actually a terrible dad joke but whatever. That terrible dad joke made me always remember Say It Ain’t So. Over the course of that night the other kids eventually got bored with Rock Band but not me. I kept playing. I wanted to master your song. I probably played it fifteen times in a row or until it was time to go home, I can’t remember. 

Now most stories like this go something like “I went home and sought out all of their music and have been a fan ever since” but not this story. I went home and went back to my life of not really caring what music I listened to. On the odd occasion I’d hear Say It Ain’t So on the radio and rock out to it but that was the extent of it. Music was never a huge part of my life in my younger years. I wasn’t an artsy kid, I played sports. In my stereotypical small town if you were on the football team you didn’t go anywhere near the band class so my focus was never on music. 

Eventually, as you guys faded from my mind, around age 12 I found what I thought would be my music identity. I discovered dance and electronic music. Artists like deadmau5, Skrillex and Wolfgang Gartner saturated my iPod. I took some serious criticism from my friends. They listened to rock music which took real talent and true inspiration to make. Not just some R2-D2 beeps and whistles looped together on a computer to make “music”. I was disheartened by how my best friends felt about my music. I had no one to share my music with which is a huge part of being a teenager. This went on for years. I felt deprived of this essential adolescent experience but thanks to my German heritage I was stubborn and set in my ways about the music I liked. 

YouTube/Ultra Music

Around this time I found out that one of the friends who was one of my harsh critics was suffering from deep depression. It shook me. I had been friends with him since we were five years old and he never showed any signs of depression. We had drifted apart and weren’t nearly as close as we once were so maybe that’s why I didn’t notice. Or maybe I was just a bad friend. I beat myself up pretty bad about the whole thing. In an effort to reconnect with him, I turned to the medium that initially drove us apart. Music. To him, music was a way to connect with your feelings and relate to someone who had the same pain as you. To me it was just a way to get pumped up before a sporting event. This was all about to change for me. 

This friend and I were messaging one day and it seemed pretty bleak. It was just sadness left and right. I wanted to take his mind off of it so I told him I’d tried listening to his favourite band at the time Blink-182 and that I wanted more suggestions. He gave me more than I could handle and I was sent down a music rabbit hole and somewhere in that hole I was led back to you guys. The song “Buddy Holly” came up and I had this moment of “hey I remember them”. Naturally, I listened to the song and had feelings for music that I’d never felt before. And that was the moment I was converted. I listened to the Blue Album from start to finish and immediately purchased it on iTunes. Yeah this was back when you still had to buy songs for 99 cents a piece! 

YouTube/weezer

It was great! I was listening to songs with words that I could relate to. Songs about nerdy dudes playing games in their basement to hide who they really were. Songs about teenage romance and dreaming of getting the girl. The most exciting thing though was that I now had music to share with my friends. I was the only one who really listened to you and they were excited to hear why I of all people was into your music. I was reconnecting with my friend group and I felt closer than ever with them. All because of a band. 

Fast forward a few years. I had exhausted your discography. I even listened to Raditude… true fans will understand the pain of that album. Little did I know an ad on Facebook would bring me right back in. “Everything Will Be Alright In the End. New album out October 7th.” For the first time since I’d been a fan you were releasing new music. I preordered the album on iTunes and also received a physical copy for my birthday. I loved every single minute of that album. Then a couple years later you released the White Album. I loved every minute of that album too. With all this love of your band you’d think I’d seen you in concert right?! Wrong. You’d  come to my province once since I’d been a fan and I couldn’t afford to go since it was at a festival and I was a broke high school kid. 

Year after year I watched your tour announcements. As is the case with most big bands “North American Tour” means 100 American cities and Vancouver, Toronto, and maybe Montreal. All of which were 1000+ kilometres from where I lived. Then, one day my dreams came true. It was almost like a “sorry we haven’t been to your city in seven years tour” and you were finally coming back to Alberta. On April 5th, 2017, thanks to a government tax rebate, I finally saw you in concert and it was one of the greatest days of my life. All the songs I’d been jamming to in my car for years were being played for me live in person. It was like you were playing just for me. What had to be the most spectacular moment of the whole show though was when you started playing the opening riff of Say It Ain’t So. The crowd went nuts. We sang louder than you did. It was a beautiful four minutes and eighteen seconds I never thought I’d get to experience. 

I saw you play a second time after I moved to Vancouver. Now I’ll never miss a show since I’m in one of the big three Canadian cities! Anyway, it was even more magical this time than the first. I think it was the venue. Rogers Arena really felt like it suited your sound better than the Grey Eagle Casino. It was easier to do theatrics, Rivers got in a boat and had people push him around the arena so he could be closer to everyone. He made a big venue feel like an intimate general admission show.

I can’t wait until the pandemic is over so I can experience this kind of stuff again.

I think the craziest thing is that I can’t figure out why I really like your music. It’s not like you were making this groundbreaking new music. It was pretty standard fare for what was popular in the 90’s. It must’ve just been the time and the place and the circumstances of my discovery. One of the reasons I can figure out for why I love you is because your sound is always changing. Most people these days say “it’s not real Weezer” or “bring back Pinkerton Weezer” but I say bring on the new you. Music is a strange medium that’s always changing and you’re doing your best not to get lost. Maybe I still love you because my music taste is always evolving too and I feel like I’m changing along with you. Or maybe I’m just a fan blinded by nostalgia. Whatever the reason, you guys will always have a fan in me. I’ll listen to anything you put out. 

You’ve helped me become the person I am today. You’ve helped me strengthen existing relationships, helped me forge new relationships and helped me through broken relationships. Your band has meant so much to me over the years. The impact you have had on me can’t truly be put into words. As I start to branch back out into different genres of music and discover new things there will always be one constant on my playlists. Your songs always have and always will be there for me and that’s the true beauty of music.

Thank you, Weezer! With all of my heart, thank you.