Formed in 1992, Weezer was one of the best bands an indie-curious young'un could hear. Their self-titled debut (The Blue Album, 1994) was incredible, as was Pinkerton (1996), and arguably even The Green Album (2001). Plus, Rivers Cuomo was a total nerd babe. Things got a little odd around Maladroit (2002), downright terrible for Make Believe (2005), and then I stopped paying attention, except to cringe at the press photos for 2008's The Red Album (the one where Cuomo looks like a concerned cowboy dad with a mustache and mullet). A Weezer album called Raditude came out in 2009, followed by Hurley—named after the Lost character and featuring a closely cropped photo of the actor's face on the album cover—in 2010. Were they serious? Were these very expensive practical-joke albums? The longest, dumbest con?

So here we are in 2014 and Weezer have made a new album called Everything Will Be Alright in the End—an album that sounds more Weezerly than anything they've done in over a decade because, apparently, they caught wind that their fans wished they would make an album that sounded more like they used to sound.

I honor of Weez's new album, my middle-school self, and their show this evening at Key Arena (they're playing the Deck the Hall Ball tonight along with TV on the Radio and Imagine Dragons, whoo boy), I've tracked down Seattle's Biggest Weezer Fan, Dave Scott, to find out what it's like to be a Weezer Fan who persevered all the way to 2014.

Hi Dave! I’m told you are a Weezer fan. Can you tell me what caliber of Weezer fan you are? I hear you are/were a card-carrying member of the Official Weezer Fan Club.
I worked for the first incarnation of the fan club. Back then it was a lot of stuffing envelopes with “Weezines.” Hand drawn, cut and paste, copied at Kinkos, and totally DIY. I met Mykel and Carli Allan through a friend in junior high school. They were the ones that started the whole thing. After seeing Weezer and Archers of Loaf at La Luna—May 18, 1994—my favorite show ever, I was hooked and just started showing up to their house to help with whatever. Stuffing envelopes, makings flyers and handing them out at shows, checking stock of their records at Ozone, etc. When I heard “Only In Dreams” for the first time (I was skipping school and sitting in a Dairy Queen enjoying a chocolate-chip cookie-dough Blizzard), I realized I’d never heard anything like it before. The entire record was flooring me, but I fucking lost it after hearing that song. I understood everything about it. So simple, but so crushing. I was working with the fan club for a couple years and then Mykel, Carli, and their sister Trysta died in a car accident coming home from a Weezer show in Colorado. After that, it just dissipated. It started up again a few years later with Karl Koch manning the helm, but they had already become WEEZER, so it was just too big of a task for a few people to pull off.

So you’ve put in some time with this band, but Weezer have been through a lot of changes throughout the years. Have you maintained your fan-hood this whole time? Has that been challenging?
Yeah, it’s a little challenging. I work at a place where whatever I put on is listened to by other people. It’s really hard to want to put on Raditude, want to actually enjoy it, and have to ready myself for the steady shitstream of horrible things people have to say about your favorite band of all time.

Let's get this out of the way: Which Weezer album is your favorite?
Favorite? Hands down, Pinkerton. Although I think their best record is The Blue Album. That album is a fucking triumph.

Least favorite?
The Red Album. That record can burn in hell. Cuomo gave tracks 7-9 to the other dudes in the band, and it's just the worst. Best thing from that era was the b-side “Ms. Sweeney.” Weird song, but really strong harmonies.

Run me through your thoughts on the albums Maladroit through Hurley.
Maladriot: This was a huge turning point in their sound. Really good record.
Make Believe: A lot of people say this is their worst record. I don’t think so. Songs like “Perfect Situation,” “The Damage In Your Heart,” and “Haunt You Everyday” are fucking cuts. No way around it. That record is blamed for “Beverly Hills” and it takes away from some really good songs.
Raditude: The mid-life crisis of Weezer. Still fun to listen to, though. Don’t judge me.
Hurley : I loved it. I also loved Lost, so… there’s that. Better than Red Album.

You never gave up. Did you think that maybe there would be a time when Weezer redeemed themselves?
I knew around the time The Green Album came out that they would never be able to do what they did on their first two albums. There was just an undeniable shift. A Weezer fan is a hopeful fan. I think they always have something rad to give us. No matter the album.

Which brings us to the newest Weezer album—Everything Will Be Alright in the End. It sounds more like Weezerly than Weezer has sounded in quite some time… going, um, “back to the shack” with Ric Ocasek producing again and all that. Is this a relief? Does it live up to the "for the fans" label it's been getting?
I think it's a really great record, and definety plays into the early stuff. There’s so much more guitar than any record since Blue/Pinkerton. That’s what I truly love about it. It feels like Rivers, Brian, and Pat made a record and just let Scott learn his parts. I think he’s had a lot to do with the writing of the really bad records. There are a few unfortunate moments of the record, but I will defend this album to the death. Yes, even "Back to the Shack."

What does the future hold for a Weezer Fan? Is the fan club back up and running? What does it even mean to be in a fan club these days? Phone calls from Rivers Cuomo?
The fan club is in its third iteration. They just started it up again with the release of their last record. Back then, it really was a fan club unlike any other. It was super personal and the Allans built some hardcore dedicated fans for the band. They would plan meet-up BBQs, fan dinners, hangouts in parking lots after the shows. I don’t think it's possible for a band that size to get away with that at this point—I think these days you just join a Facebook group and get offers to buy tickets a day early to shitty seats in an enormous arena.