Toronto – The Ballroom is the new hip destination among urban young twenty somethings who are suffering from nostalgic feelings from back in the day when they used to go bowling in the suburbs. It’s a very fitting venue for Sheezer, an all female Weezer cover band consisting of musicians Robin Hatch, Dana Snell, Alysha Haugen, Magali Meagher and Laura Barrett all of whom have their own personal projects in bands such as The Bicycles and The Phonemes. Already Rivers Cuomo approved, Sheezer have slowly been making their mark around the city with a variety of high energy shows that well, let’s face it, takes the best of Weezer (first two album) and gives it a nice swift boot in the butt. Wednesday night’s show kicks off ‘Ballroom Live’, a soon-to-be weekly Wednesday that combines bowling and really great live bands.
Having seen and enjoyed Sheezer live before, I skipped the bowling (instead opting for a night of drinking scotch on an empty stomach – bad idea) and just went straight to show. The girls took the stage shortly after eleven and began the night with a rousing rendition of My Name is Jonas (which I mistook for Zombies, while being downstairs and on the phone..why would I even think that?? wait maybe it was playing downstairs at the time in the bowling alley..anyways). Buddy Holly soon followed and we were on our way into an hour of nostalgia drenched Weezer memories. I saw Weezer open for the Pixies a few years ago and I actually like seeing Sheezer more. Maybe it was because Weezer was playing a lot of shitty songs during that show, but Sheezer plays songs like The Sweater Song, El Sorcho and Say It Ain’t So with so much enthusiasm and energy it’s hard not to get caught up in the moment. I guess it also helps that they are all pretty cute. They even teased Hash Pipe, which is obviously not off Pinkerton or the Blue Album, but I was kind of hoping they’d play it too.
Sheezer is always a fun time, I highly recommend catching them if you have the chance.