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.
