Matt Sharp and Rivers Cuomo have a number of things in common. They’ve both been in Weezer for starters. They both have a tremendous gift for a catchy melody. They both look good in thick-rimmed glasses. They’ve both put bands they’ve been in on indefinite hiatus. Where they depart though is in what happened after their bands’ respective hiatuses. Cuomo, after having revealed perhaps a bit too much of his inner monologue for his own tastes on Pinkerton (even if that’s what made it the band’s best record), decided to remove all traces of emotional depth from his music, and Weezer quickly descended into sad self-parody. Sharp, on the other hand, brought back his Moog-tastic New Wave throwbacks The Rentals a couple of years ago after emerging from his own semi-reclusive period, but never lost the sense of fun that made them such a great (if under-appreciated) band to begin with.

If you want one word to describe The Rental’s show at the 9:30 Club on Sunday, it’s bouncy. From the opening keyboard blasts and falsetto “hoo-hoo-hoos” of “The Love I’m Searching For,” Sharp was bouncing all over the stage in his day-glo retro Nikes like Tigger on a pogo stick, running into invisible walls on stage, and grabbing audience members in the front row by the top of the head like a power pop faith healer. And did we ever believe. Being a Sunday night show for a band past the brief peak of its popularity, the crowd was only a couple of hundred strong, which is a shame. But most of those gathered more than made up for their lack of numbers in a surplus of enthusiasm, pogoing right along with Sharp for the duration of the 90 minute set.

It was a homecoming of sorts for Sharp, who grew up in Arlington and whose sister was in attendance. While introducing the country-tinged “She Says It’s Alright,” he fondly reminisced over a memory of cruising the used-car lots of Arlington with his Dad, who, much to Sharp’s delight, bought the Trans-Am the Smokey and the Bandit-obsessed youth was hoping he’d get. His happiness at being in a familiar place with some familiar faces around was readily apparent, and translated into the energetic performance.

Photo by Flickr user rpongsaj, used under a Creative Commons license.

Joining him on stage in this latest iteration of the band are six other musicians, including Nerf Herder’s Ben Pringle on keyboards, and Rachel Haden on bass, keyboards, and vocals. Pringle was sporting a rather spectacular moustache, though there was some onstage debate as to whether it was more Hall & Oates or Burt Reynolds. Sharp came down firmly on the side of Reynolds, but that may have only been because it was a convenient segue to his Smokey and the Bandit story. And Haden is the only link to the band’s original lineup, as she contributed some backing vocals to their debut record (though it was her sister Petra who was actually in the band at the start). Haden and the other women in the band all did a lot of instrument hopping: Sara Radle played guitar, and Lauren Chipman was on viola, but everyone ended up behind a Moog at one point or another.

Of course, if anyone threatened to steal the show, it was all those keyboards — at least 8 scattered around the stage by my count. But as much as that old analog synth sound defines The Rentals’ sound, it’s still Sharp’s, well, sharp songwriting that makes the group more than just a gimmick. The best songs are still on their debut, which they performed almost in its entirety, and standouts like “Waiting,” “Please Let That Be You,” and their biggest hit, “Friends of P,” worked the crowd (on the floor, anyway) into a happy frenzy more than any others. But the selections from the largely ignored sophomore effort, Seven More Minutes were not to be underestimated, and “Barcelona,” “Keep Sleeping,” and “Man With Two Brains” were crowd favorites as well. The three songs from their just-released EP fit in pretty seamlessly with the older material. Sharp’s Weezer past showed itself as well, with the Pinkerton B-side “I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams,” making an appeareance near the end of the set. This song was from Rivers Cuomo’s scrapped rock opera Songs From the Black Hole, and it’s a natural addition to the Rentals set, as Rachel Haden handled lead vocals on the Weezer original, and judging from the Moog-heavy sound of the original, Sharp probably had more than a little to do with its writing.

In the end, after the encore, Sharp remained on stage after his bandmates had left to talk to the audience a little more. It was mainly just another heartfelt and extended thanks to everyone for being there, and an introduction of another Nat King Cole song that they were going to play over the PA to close, bookending the one that came on before the band took the stage. He reiterated once again how pleased he was to be there, and invited everyone to join him and the band for drinks after the show, as they would be hanging out for awhile. It was an unusual and classy gesture to end a fantastic show.

Setlist:

The Love I’m Searching For
Naïve
Life Without a Brain
Please Let That Be You
Keep Sleeping
Sweetness and Tenderness
She Says It’s Alright
These Days
My Summer Girl
The Man With Two Brains
The Cruise
Last Romantic Day
Say Goodbye ForeverGetting By (lead vocals by Aaron Marsh from openers Copeland)
I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams (Weezer cover)
Friends of P
Barcelona
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Move On
Little Bit of You
Waiting