In 1994, one perfect alt-rock album harbored more secret geekiness than any other. With references to Dungeons & Dragons’s multi-sided dice and the X-Men character Kitty Pryde, the audience for the debut Weezer album — now generally called The Blue Album — was decidedly aimed at those who felt like outsiders. Calling Weezer “geek rock” might not be entirely fair, but it would be utterly incorrect to pretend like they weren’t at least a little bit geek-adjacent.
Case-in-point: Weezer recently embarked on a massive 30th-anniversary “Voyage to the Blue Planet” tour and, in doing so, they’ve not-so-secretly brought back a low-key extraterrestrial that the band invented back in 1994. If you’ve seen Weezer on their big ‘90s nostalgia tour, you may have noticed a very specific alien named Bokkus. But who is this sci-fi villain and how did he make a comeback three decades after his subtle Blue Album debut?
The origin of Bokkus
Essentially, the alien known as Bokkus is the ultimate Weezer inside joke. In 1992, well before their first album was released, and around the time of The Kitchen Tape demo, the band messed around with a Marvel comics “Try Out” book, which encouraged you to fill in panels of an existing Spider-Man story. But everybody gave up on trying to stay within the Marvel canon and instead created a bonkers character named Bokkus, who is described on Weezerpedia as a “crazed alien who comes to Middle America to create havoc and chase the farmer's daughter.”
Weezer drummer Pat Wilson is primarily credited with drawing what Bokkus looks like and adding the visage of Bokkus to his drum head. This means Bokkus was on Wilson’s drum kit, which appears in a photo of the band’s setup that was included on the inside cover of The Blue Album.
That’s why this alien creature is back in such a big way for the “Voyage to the Blue Planet” tour. Bokkus was there when it all started, and now, he’s back for a massive sci-fi adventure that’s playing out on stages across the world.
Weezer’s Bokkus comeback
Throughout the new 2024 “Voyage to the Blue Planet” concert, Weezer presents a kind of miniature sci-fi movie, which plays out as the band sets out on a mission to save the Blue Planet (which may or may not be Earth). The first half of their 26-song set list features a mix of their greatest hits as they travel on a spaceship as depicted on a massive screen behind the band. (Once Weezer reaches their destination, they play the entire Blue Album from front to back.)
It’s during that voyage through space that Weezer encounters Bokkus at some sort of space cantina, telling the audience afterward that they “hate that guy.” Bokkus appears several more times throughout the show, becoming the primary villain as the band gets stuck in the “Pinkerton Asteroid Belt” before finally arriving on the Blue Planet. It culminates in a big showdown between the alien and the “Weezeroids.” Of course, Weezer wins.
If this all sounds too wild to be believed, it certainly is, while also being totally true. (But also, to be clear, none of the Bokkus stuff is central to the concert itself, and you can have a great time at the show without paying any attention to this “crazed alien” running around on a screen behind the band.)
Ultimately, what makes the return of Bokkus so delightful is that it reaffirms the early Weezer commitment to speculative fiction and overtly geeky concepts. Even the famous video for “Buddy Holly” featured a kind of time travel to the 1950s, which suggested an interesting sideways homage to Back to the Future. In the new “Voyage to the Blue Planet” show an alternate timeline is even presented, one in which Rivers Cuomo suddnely has the name “Kurt.” Is this a reference to Kurt Cobain, or the time-hopping Kurt Vonnegut?
No matter your interpretation of the existence of Bokkus and his villainous return to the Weezer mythos, one thing is clear: The influence of science fiction and fantasy continues to power one of the greatest rock bands on our planet, 30 years on.
