Get the latest gossip

Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer review – mismatched 90s rockers bore and charm

Billy Corgan’s band are bloated with self-importance, but Rivers Cuomo and company continue to dole out witty power-pop with elan

When Weezer( ★★★) emerged with a self-titled 1994 debut album of hook-laden geek-rock and nerdy, knock-kneed songs about teen angst, they were met with critical horror. In a post-Nirvana musical landscape in thrall to aching authenticity, they were dismissed as lightweight dilettantes, fronted by a holidaying Harvard scholar in Rivers Cuomo. They bring endearing charm both to their own gawky back-catalogue staples such as Hash Pipe and Buddy Holly, and a rollickingly urgent cover of Hole’s Celebrity Skin.

Get the Android app