‘Say It Ain’t So’, at The Old Cold Store

Say It Ain’t So - A Weezer Night isn’t the first time that The Old Cold Store had hosted a wall-to-wall Weezer event. The first time in 2022 ignited the trio of bands to tour around the UK performing this, and other cover sets .

I wasn’t there for it the first time around and the reason was almost certainly because I had no one to go with me, so I shied away from awkwardly partying by myself. This time however, older and wiser, I decided it’s a huge shame to be missing live music performances just because my friends prefer to listen exclusively to 80’s Techno Electronica Lo-fo Beats on a loop. So, with some nerves, I grabbed my tickets (£10) and decided I’d go through with it regardless.

There were also some nerves because I’m not the biggest Weezer fan. Whilst I do own four albums, they all appear to be called Weezer (and I realised only recently that fans refer to them by colour). Their music only really reached me via Kerrang radio, who seem to have trained me mostly on the greatest hits. I didn’t want to turn up and be an obvious fake-fan.

Before the first of three bands came on stage, we were treated to some background music: some Weezer to clear the palate. I thought this was a bit bold to pregame with some deep cuts, presumably avoiding the set list of the upcoming acts. I had to get out Shazam to recognise some of the songs: The Girl Got Hot, Basketball, and Da Vinci were all tracks I might have been hearing for the first time.

I needn’t have worried though.

Beans McQueens came on stage as a solo artist with clean, acoustic guitar and treated us to the best of Weezer, which I knew all the tracks of. (Thanks, Kerrang!) Beans’ performance was very fun. It was a proper treat to hear Cuomo’s lyrics in an English accent and made the whole thing feel more earnest.

At the end of one song, their E string broke and Beans looked humorously deflated: “the set might go a bit differently now.” Fortunately, someone was ready waiting in the wings to fix it. He kicked off Beverly Hills by saying, “you guys have to be the guitar” which seemed to be the energy needed to kick the dedicated fans into overdrive. After the first verse, Beans chimed back in with his repaired guitar, and the audience were still ready to add backing.

I hadn’t realised how much the audience as an instrument impacted a performance, but when everyone was singing along there was an emotional resonance bouncing around the industrial brew house that swelled my heart.

After an interlude of more Weezer between bands, Weird Elements came on stage to play tracks from Pinkerton. Here Kerrang has let me down and I struggled to keep up with many of the songs in the same way - I decided though to just enjoy the music for what it was.

Weird Elements is a four piece, rock band that likes to play their music loudly. At one point, lead vocalist, Will, pointed at his guitar and gestured for the sound team to pump up his volume. “Guitar up!” he yelled between tracks. At this point, I thought he was plenty loud, but the crowd seemed up for even louder so there we went. Then the bassist also added in a “bass up!” and I was worried for an arms race between the two.

There’s something to be said for enjoying music loudly. There’s so few places where we can do that, especially with my awkward temperament and anxiety about bugging my neighbour.

Weird Elements were my least favourite of the three acts, but that takes nothing from their skill with their instruments. Where Beans might have pulled back from a high note, WE leaned in and struck them true. Their rendition of the album combined the nuanced, darker Weezer lyrics with a harder rock that made the tracks their own as well as a tribute to Weezer.

George Gadd + The Aftermath came on last with the most distinctly Weezer style.

This was a very fun set, with keyboard and guitarist, Ciaran Grant, especially really loving the stage and making a few laugh out loud off the cuff jokes. The vocals from the band were spot on too, and it’s easy to tell how George Gadd’s emo range plays well into Weezer songs. You may also see them around doing Green Day covers, which I’m hopeful to see some day.

With them getting the boon of playing the blue album, everyone in the room - including me - knew these songs and were amped to be singing along. The crowd gathered closer the stage (I left my protective table) and helped sing along to Say It Ain’t So and The Sweater Song.

The moral of this story is that it’s good for your soul to go along to more live gigs. Wether you’re on your own (for what it’s worth, there were a good number of people who had come out on solo adventures), or if you don’t know a band entire discography, it’s just you and the music in the end. Go on and enjoy it.

All three performances were great, and as Nottingham frequenters, I’m going to keep an eye out for them in the future. Likely making more solo live music journeys.