Jimmy Eat World played to a jam packed Warfield Theater in front a perfect mix of hipsters and rock n roll enthusiasts both young and old. I have been following this band since their early days but funny enough I had never seen the band live.
Why the term “emo” still follows these guys around is a mystery to me. That’s sort of like calling Cheap Trick or Material Issue emo, I mean to me it’s just really great power pop. I thought the whole “emo” thing started with bands like Dashboard Confessional and died off just like any other flash in the pan genre does.
The bands that survive these premature labels, just as Jimmy Eat World has brilliantly done, do so by simply writing great songs and kicking ass live. I never thought that I would use the phrase “kicking ass” to describe a Jimmy Eat World show, but that’s exactly what came to mind one song into their set.
Lead vocalist Jim Adkins was much more animated on stage that I would have imagined. Where other folks who play this type of music are either looking bored out of their minds or shoegazing out of sheer depression, Adkins turned this into a rock n roll show. Flawlessly backed by one hell of a tight rhythm section and complimented perfectly with Tom Linton’s blissful guitar tones, these guys took power in power pop to a whole new level.
Their new record Damages is incredible. I highly recommend it because it’s easily one of the best power pop record of the year, and a reminder of how glorious the music coming out of the mid to late 90s was. This one is just produced much better sonically, and that’s a good thing.
Check out all the photos from the show in the gallery here.
Were you at the show? What did you think? Please join the conversation in the comment section below.
