Long before releasing their ninth studio album, Spanish punk rock trio Airbag were so obsessed with Weezer that they started playing entire concerts made up exclusively of the American band’s songs.
In a new interview with Spanish music publication CrazyMinds, Airbag recalled how their admiration for the Rivers Cuomo-led band led them to launch an occasional cover project in the early 2000s, around the time they were establishing themselves in Spain’s punk rock scene.
“We started a project alongside Airbag, just for fun, where we only played Weezer covers,” frontman Adolfo Díaz explained. “Our first show like that was in the early 2000s.”
The project featured all three members of Airbag, sometimes joined by a second guitarist. According to bassist José Andrés, they performed roughly five or six Weezer-only concerts, including one built around the band’s 2001 self-titled album, commonly known as The Green Album.
“We were basically presenting Weezer’s albums,” Díaz recalled. For the Green Album show, the trio even recreated the record’s visual aesthetic on their concert poster, posing together against a green background.
But the Weezer connection went beyond the covers. Díaz also remembered revisiting one of Airbag’s earliest interviews, conducted around the release of their 2000 debut, Mondo Cretino. Asked what kind of band they hoped to become as they grew older, their answer was simple: “We want to be like Weezer when we grow up.”
As Díaz explained, the band were deeply immersed in punk rock at the time, but they also admired Weezer’s ability to make energetic music with greater attention to detail and melody. That balance would eventually become an important part of Airbag’s own musical evolution.
Nearly three decades into their career, Airbag have just released Una extraña fuerza, their ninth studio album, through Sonido Muchacho. The record continues the band’s blend of distorted guitars and melodic songwriting, offering a timely reminder of how far they’ve traveled from their early days playing Weezer songs for fun.
Meanwhile, Weezer have had a busy year of their own. They released their 20th studio album, another self-titled effort, in August, and recently wrapped the North American leg of their “The Gathering” tour with a hometown show in Los Angeles on October 24th. The tour is set to continue internationally in 2027, with dates in Japan, the UK, and Europe.
