Rivers Cuomo / Various

Watching Rivers Cuomo & Friends Live at Fingerprints was like watching a grown man right before he breaks down. The idea is great: Rivers shows up for an in-store session at the Long Beach record store but instead of bringing his guitar he invites super-fans to bring their instruments and choose the songs they'll sing and play together. However, Cuomo looks like he decided to go on a three-day coke bender sometime before the performance and dresses up as a directionally impaired '30s train conductor. The audience members play Weezer and solo songs with everything from guitars to flutes, as Cuomo unsuccessfully attempts to sing along while scrambling to read his own lyrics off sheets of paper. The only song he seems to know by heart is "Buddy Holly." The rest of the time the fans do the singing while a man dressed in a Batman costume pretends to tend to the mics. Either I entirely missed something with this DVD or Cuomo is seriously loosing his shit. He even manages to forget the words to newer material, including "Can't Stop Partying." Despite this, the DVD feels like a day at Weezer Summer Camp — everyone is laughing and singing along to a variety of tracks, including "Butterfly" and "El Scorcho." It must be the first day of camp though because Cuomo is even more awesomely awkward than usual. The extras section features another bizarre piece where Jason Schwartzman interviews Cuomo. Apparently Schwartzman is a crazed Weezer fan. He rambles profusely about how much he loves Weezer, the first show he saw and other nonsensical stories about his teenybopper love for the band. It's very strange to watch, meaning it fits in nicely with this DVD. While the audience appears to be having a good time it's obvious even they are confused by the strange display before them. Diehard Weezer fans will want to pick up the counterpart to Cuomo's second solo release, Alone II, especially if you like classic and obscure Weezer tracks, but be prepared for bewilderment.