Weezer performs at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif. on Oct. 9, 2024. Matt Pang/STAFF.

SAN FRANCISCO — A silver capsule appeared onstage Wednesday night at Chase Center. As countdown clocks on giant screens reached zero, the capsule rose slowly, revealing the four members of Weezer, standing on the drum riser at center stage. The Bay Area appearance was the penultimate date for Weezer’s The Voyage to the Blue Planet tour, which began in October and ends Friday in Los Angeles.

The band kicked things off the space-themed show playing a smattering of songs from later albums, including “Anonymous” and “Return to Ithaka” which, appropriately enough, comprise the last two-thirds of the “Futurescope Trilogy” on 2014’s Everything Will Be Alright in the End. Frontman Rivers Cuomo and company also played “Dope Nose” and “Burnet Jamb” of 2002’s Maladroit. Huge cheers erupted in reaction to the slinky guitar of “Islands in the Sun” and the overdriven heaviness of “Hash Pipe,” from the band’s self-titled 2001 album, known as the Green Album.

Several songs in, an AI personality with glasses and a “W” body appearing on a screen, informed the band (and audience) that they had crashed in the “Pinkerton Asteroid Belt,” a reference to 1996’s sophomore album, Pinkerton.

Weezer performs at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif. on Oct. 9, 2024.

“Aw man, we crash-landed. Let me get my search light,” Cuomo yelled. He turned moved a bright handheld light across the room.

Seamlessly, the band launched into a rollicking rendition of “Getchoo” and “Why Bother,” which featured beautiful vocal harmonies with guitarist Brian Bell and bassist Scott Shriner. The crowd was particularly enthusiastic singing the chorus of “Pink Triangle.” The band left a blackened stage after an emotional version of “Across the Sea.”

A blue planet appeared onscreen, and a computer voice announced it was “scanning for civilizations” and “searching for signs of life,” before announcing “Weezer entering the atmosphere.” The band reappeared with Cuomo having swapped out his spacesuit for a “Star Trek: The Next Generation” uniform with the Starfleet insignia replaced by Weezer’s own logo.

“That’s one small step for Weezer and one giant leap for Weezer-kind,” he announced.

“The planet is dying; we need the Blue Album to bring it back to life!” Cuomo then yelled.

And with that, Weezer kicked into the opening acoustic guitar part—played by Bell on electric guitar—of “My Name is Jonas,” the opening track on the that album. While attendees sang along enthusiastically to “No One Else” and “The World Has Turned And Left Me Here,” they went absolutely crazy for the opening guitar opening from “Buddy Holly.”

Weezer performs at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif. on Oct. 9, 2024.

What was clear from the incredible reaction the songs received was that Weezer’s debut album still holds special meaning to people. Nowhere was this more apparent than during “Say It Ain’t So,” a rocking and affecting depiction of a household torn apart by alcohol abuse. During the first two choruses, the band and Cuomo dropped out entirely so that the crowd could sing the iconic refusal, “say it ain’t so!” on its own. In the cavernous room, the huge chorus sounded both defiant and haunted.

During “The Sweater Song,” Bell changed the vapid party dialog to say, “I really want to go to Zeitgeist. Can I get a ride to Valencia Street?” Cuomo then described teenage loneliness and isolation on “In the Garage” and the album’s closer, “Only in Dreams.”

“Well team, we’ve made it,” Cuomo said as Shriner played the iconic bass line to “Only in Dreams.”

The Flaming Lips perform at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif. on Oct. 9, 2024.

Before the headliner, The Flaming Lips delivered a 50-minute set featuring all manner of psychedelia with props like inflatable eyes and lips, robots and even a sign that read “Fuck Yeah San Francisco.” At one point, frontman Wayne Coyne read a list of San Francisco venues the band had played over its nearly four-decade career, including the I-Beam, The Kennel Club, Slim’s, Shoreline Amphitheatre and last year’s Stern Grove Festival. The quintet played a few songs from each of its most popular albums, including “The Spark That Bled” and “Suddenly Everything Has Changed,” from The Soft Bulletin.

Coyne was flanked by giant slowly inflating pink robots during the first part of “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,” from the album of the same name. During the chaotic second part of the song, he threw the San Francisco sign into the crowd only to have it torn first into words, and then into individual letters. One of the most interesting musical moments of the night was the Lips’ synth-heavy and creepy cover of Madonna’s “Borderline.”

Dinosaur Jr. kicked off the evening with a brisk 25-minute set that began 10 minutes before the show’s posted start time.

“Hey! Guess what? This song is from 1988,” Singer-guitarist J Mascis said before dropping into “Freak Scene,” from Bug. Mascis delivered throaty wah-wah guitar work throughout the set, but nowhere was it sharper than on Dinosaur Jr.’s legendary cover of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.”

Follow photographer Matt Pang at Twitter.com/mattpangs.