25 Years Ago, Right Before 9/11, I Wished Jimmy Eat World Success
25 years ago this month, I wrote about my week following around Jimmy Eat World on their first headlining tour in support of “Bleed American” that was published on 9/7/01.
I had recently left my first job at Cornerstone Marketing/The Fader. I had written a ton in college and 25 years ago I was a massive cheerleader of this band. The company had a budding music news website called The Tripwire and they said it was cool to write a recap on the shows.
Little did I know that a few days later I’d see the World Trade Center smoking from the 59th street bridge or stand in the middle of 6th Ave and see the 2nd tower fall. Surreal then and surreal now.
I’d somehow saved this article I’d written almost 25 years ago. I thought what a fitting time to release my honest take on the band and this album’s inevitiable climb and staying power.
A few things to note as you read:
I completely forgot the band banned the word “emo” from their message board.
That I interacted with Jim Adkins because of my Tenacious D t-shirt.
Throwing shade at the performance at times.
An earnest note about hope that this band can cut through the noise.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
CORNERSTONE
THE TRIPWIRE
[09.07.01] Live: On Tour With Jimmy Eat World
Jimmy Eat World have been at this “emo” thing for a while and way before bands like The Juliana Theory had their copies of Sunny Day Real Estate, Christie Front Drive and Mineral to rip off. The bands official site even bans the word “emo” on their own messageboard. Even if they hate it they still are the one hope to hear a good song on the radio. After going through two albums on Capitol with a small hit with “Lucky Denver Mint” and resting their already completed record in Dreamworks hands. The time has come for Jimmy Eat World to play the arenas around the world. But before all the roadies of the road stop setting up 5 headsets and arranging outfits to setting up Marshalls and drum risers Jimmy Eat World must rock the east coast in their first headlining tour in support of “Bleed American.”
After road tripping on a bus to the first two shows of the tour in Boston and Providence I was excited to see the response from the two sold out shows at Irving Plaza and Bowery Ballroom. First the sold out Irving Plaza show. I don’t want to burst any bubbles but I got to say that Jimmy Eat World plays the same set each night. To be honest I didn’t mind it because the songs flowed really well together and it got tighter and tighter as the shows progressed. At the Irving show Jim and Co. seemed to enjoy NYC and playing here. Starting off with the single “Bleed American” and tearing through songs off their almost forgotten first record Static Prevails the crowd was pumped to hear them. One of the highlights was “For Me This is Heaven” off Clarity with Rachel Hayden from That Dog doing back up vocals. A common complaint of Jimmy Eat World is they cannot repeat what they do on the albums live. Past tours have proven that true but with this tour and acquiring the added guitar player and Rachel on keyboards and backups really brought the full sound to many songs that in the past have been very shallow and empty. At times Rachel sang over Jim (lead singer/guitarist) and there was some heckling from the audience but it was few and far between. Jimmy Eat World’s slow songs like “Hear You Me” are very hard to pull off but she made them easier to swallow. “Goodbye Sky Harbor” which is the sixteen minute opus that closes out Clarity had the most refreshing remake. They shortened it and rocked it out to finish out the set. Coming back for the encore was the crowd favorites “Blister” and the most popular Jimmy Eat World song ever, “Sweetness”.
The second show for Jimmy Eat World was at Bowery Ballroom. It was sold out months in advance by only being announced on the Internet! So tonight had a totally different vibe and it started off with a special friend. Introducing the band was K.G. of Tenacious D. The chants of “D” were loud as ever! The night before at Irving I was walking around and Jim stopped me upstairs and told me I had a great shirt. We in turn talked about Guided By Voices for a long time but that is a totally different story. I kicked myself for wearing my Tenacious D shirt the day before and if only K.G. knew I was down with the D!
Tonight the band was more relaxed and it showed in the set. Sure it was (almost) the same as Boston, Providence and Irving Plaza but it seemed like they were more relaxed that actual fans being there. The only difference in the set was a switched song from the encore to the regular set but overall the band was tighter and sang with more passion. Highlights included a great version of “No Sensitivity” with the crowd doing the back up vocals for the band. Thanking the crowd many times the band kept everyone going with another great rocker “The Authority Song” which has the hook that rivals anything on radio today. Finishing out the encore set with “Sweetness” again the crowd never stop cheering hoping for one more song. The lights came on and for this time we didn’t get a second encore. Hopefully next time Jimmy Eat World can get the second chance on their music career and we get our second encore at Madison Square Garden.
Originally reported by Tom Mullen (tom@tvtrecords.com)
