Saturday night, Tempe Beach Park displayed a flood of concert-goers ready for a lineup full of this generation’s rock classics, Weezer and Sublime With Rome.
The second annual Arizona Fall Frenzy has begun a habitual recipe, sending big-name sets to Saturday's lineup. Headlining the second of the three-day festival were two bands with big news.
Original Sublime members Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh were joined by a new front man, Rome Ramirez, excited to perform songs that have been only heard from recordings since original vocalist and guitarist Bradley Nowell passed away in 1996.
Following their performance, Weezer took the stage, performing old favorites from their seven previous albums and debuting new songs from their recently released eighth album, Hurley.
When buying tickets this year, attendees of the festival were focused toward the comeback of Wilson and Gaugh. No longer titled with simply “Sublime” due to legal issues, “Sublime With Rome” excited guests with the sense of respect for the late Nowell.
“All of his lyrics were so brilliant,” said Steve Gomez, 20. “It's not the same band anymore.”
While it’s no longer the same band to some, that did not necessarily disappoint the crowd.
Danielle Donegan, 16, described Ramirez's performance of the original Nowell tracks as “so good” and felt that the new addition did the songs justice. With fireworks lighting the sky halfway through their set, the crowd swayed and saluted 90's classics “What I Got,” “Date Rape” and the summer anthem “Doin' Time” by singing along to every word.
The band was not much for stage tactics or gimmicks, yet their occasional appreciation to the audience and simple dictation of their radio hits kept the crowd in place for the set.
While Sublime With Rome entertained the audience with old favorites, Rivers Cuomo of Weezer mixed it up a bit.
Staying true to his work, he performed all-time favorites “Say It Ain't So,” “Island in the Sun” and “My Name's Jonas,” but later stuck in covers such as Lady Gaga's “Poker Face” while sporting a blonde wig. The band played their hearts out with a full set hitting a majority of their hits, even with technical problems leading them off to a rough start. Cuomo continued to engage the screaming crowd with his songs as he communicated with the tech crew.
Though the two headliners were well-known names, the younger crowd was lost with old-favorite openers Devo and Primus. However, those names did not deter Generation Y from heading to the festival later in the evening. Many goers were excited to see Devo back to touring.
Amoryn Martin was “impressed” by the boys' performance and loved to listen to “all their symbolism” live again.
Other audience members were baffled to hear that the attendees were not as excited to see Devo perform. Crystal Wise, 20, described their stage presence as “magnetic.”
“How can you not like Devo?” questioned Gomez, “Not liking Devo is like not liking life.”
In addition, other visitors relaxing between sets were proud of Devo's decade throwback.
“The ’80s never die,” said Peter Smith. “It's revenge of the nerds, but really, really hot.”
Among the other openers were crowd-pleasers Blue October and The Dirty Heads. But one up-and-coming band, AM Taxi, set the pace for Saturday's show with classic rock and punk-inspired songs, keeping the feet of the trickling-in early birds tapping to the beat and a few underground fans singing along.
Reach the reporter at lkjorda1@asu.edu
