Weezer – Minnesota Yacht Club – St. Paul MN – July 19th 2025

Weezer live at the Minnesota Yacht Club on July 19th 2025

Review and phots by Kyle Hansen

Weezer took the stage on a warm Saturday evening like a band with nothing to prove and everything to give. With a 70-minute set that leaned heavily on ’90s nostalgia and clean, crisp power chords, the LA alt-rock veterans delivered exactly what the crowd came for: hooks, humor, and hits.

Opening with “Hash Pipe,” the band immediately reminded everyone why The Green Album still defines a generation. Rivers Cuomo—part frontman, part awkward genius—was in fine form, bantering with the crowd and even tossing out a few regionally tailored jokes (“This river’s prettier than the Pacific, fight me!”).

The set was tight, professional, but never sterile. The middle chunk included fan favorites like “El Scorcho,” “Island in the Sun,” and “Hash Pipe,” with the crowd losing its collective mind during the first riff of “Say It Ain’t So.” There was no fluff, no deep jam sections—just song after song, all delivered with the kind of self-aware charm only Weezer can pull off.

Cuomo even broke into a short solo version of “You Gave Your Love to Me Softly,” nodding to longtime fans and soundtrack nerds alike. Some lyric changes to show the locals. Living in St Paul during Beverly Hills, Pork and Beans had Prince knows the way to the top of the charts, and Half-Minnesotan girls during Pork and Beans.

The visuals were minimal—a backdrop of a pixel video game—but it worked. This was a performance powered by nostalgia and tight musicianship, not spectacle. The biggest cheers came during “Buddy Holly,” which closed the set on a high note with thousands of voices yelling, “I don’t care what they say about us anyway!”

Crowd vibe: Joyful chaos. Teens danced ironically, elder Millennials screamed like it was 1996, and parents with Gen Z kids pretended they hadn’t cried during “The Sweater Song.”

Final thoughts:
Weezer’s Minnesota Yacht Club set wasn’t revolutionary—it was reaffirming. A band that could easily coast on greatest hits showed up sharp, self-aware, and with just the right balance of weird and wonderful. In a festival packed with noise, Weezer was the sweet spot between nostalgia and now.

Rating: 9/10
Best moment: That crowd-wide “Say it ain’t soooooo-ooohhhh” belt. Chills.