Weezer Exacts a Happy Revenge

No matter what the headlines say, a lot more picked-on kids are grabbing guitars than guns. And though it seems as if the bullies and Barbies have dominated pop music for a few years now, Friday’s concert by Weezer at the Hollywood Palladium rang as a triumphant return of rock’s prodigal nerds--it’s been four years since the group’s last album--to a grateful crowd.

The Los Angeles quartet’s winged W logo, rendered on stage Friday in flashing lights, may evoke (and mock) the cocky strut of both pro wrestling’s and party-rockers Van Halen’s brands. But think of it more as something that a Clark Kent kin might wear under street clothes. Frontman Rivers Cuomo has never shied away from a Kent-ish image, and he still sported his black-rimmed glasses and down vest on stage, along with an uncomfortable, stiff manner.

Cuomo’s superpowers? Clever, catchy sing-alongs wryly expressing fear of rejection and ridicule. Several new songs from the band’s third album, expected soon, expanded on such loner-rock anthems as “Buddy Holly” and “In the Garage” with the tricky balance of intimate, fragile solipsism and arena-scaled, exuberant aggression--without resorting to nihilism or bluster.

But his top power may prove to be timing--sitting out rock’s cycle of boorishness, overwrought angst and plastic pop to come back at a time when those he speaks for have a need to be heard. It’s an appeal that is boosting a new generation of Weezer-influenced bands, including Friday’s second-billed act, Kansas City quintet the Get Up Kids. We’ve heard this many times before. But it still connects.