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Jimmy Eat World - Showbox SoDo, Seattle
May 20, 2011
It takes two buses to get there, out past Safeco Field in the Industrial District, from SU. Sitting on 1st Avenue South - not the most walkable of Seattle streets - the Showbox SoDo is, apparently, not a patch on the one At The Market (I wouldn’t know, I’ve haven’t been there yet). There’s not a lot of room, it’s very flat and not the most aesthetically pleasing, and most of it is roped off to keep out the minors; it’s a nuisance to me now, but I’ll likely be grateful for it and the 21+ shows I’ll be able to attend in a few months. All of this sounds like it might not be the most enjoyable experience.
But really, I would go see Jimmy Eat World if they were playing beneath an overpass.
Let’s be fair to the venue though, the staff was very nice, and one thing SoDo does have going for it is its compactness, which means a lot more intimacy with the performing artists. You’ll never be half a mile from the stage, but still, I wanted to be as close as I could get, because this was my first Jimmy Eat World show, and it’s been a long time coming.
Before they even start, you can tell that performing is their favorite part of the job. They seem almost as excited as the audience. Which was about half as excited as I was.
Bleed American opens the set, as seems to be tradition, followed closely by A Praise Chorus, which leads the attendee to get excited for what might be the entire album Bleed American start to finish (which has indeed been happening this year, more so near the end of their North American tour, as 2011 marks the ten year anniversary of the release of their most commercially successful album, the one that made everyone know who Jimmy Eat World is). But not this time, as My Best Theory follows. But later on, the lead singer Jim Adkins announces this anniversary and says they’ll celebrate by playing an “older” song, Cautioners. It makes me laugh, to think of anything off Bleed American as their older material, but in reality that’s exactly what it is. Ten years it’s been since their fourth release, the first one I ever bought, and three albums and a number of EPs have followed after. But it seems like yesterday that I used a free iTunes download from a Pepsi bottle cap to download Sweetness, a song and a band I had never heard before.
And now here I am, singing along with every goddamn song.
They do an excellent job of playing an equal amount of tracks from their five most recent albums, meaning that long-time fans are rewarded, but with the heavy presence of singles, from Lucky Denver Mint (ever seen Never Been Kissed?) to the more recent Coffee & Cigarettes, anyone just barely or not at all familiar with the band is guaranteed to have a good time as well. They play with the same energy they started out with in 1993 (I wasn’t physically there to witness this way back then, of course, but that’s the beauty of handheld cameras and Youtube). It’s amazing to think that these guys, most of whom if not all have families and kids and all that, are still doing what they love to do, and with youthful vitality.
While many groups don’t translate well from studio albums to live shows, Jimmy Eat World looks and sounds simply amazing in person. Never boring, never half-assed, never something to walk out on. And whoever the sound guy was on the night of the 20th of May, pat yourself on the back. Your skills are very much appreciated.
At one point a certain vocal audience member declaimed the band’s use of a “mister” (is that what the kids are calling fog machines these days?) and after going through one song, Jim Adkins addressed the audience member, laughing and telling a story about a previous show reviewer who had lambasted the band, their music, and yes, their use of a mister. But Jimmy Eat World has been at it too long, and love their job too much, for that to bother them. The band has had more than it’s share of detractors, but this show was enough to convince me that they are utterly confident in what they do (though very humble about it). I didn’t get to talk to any of them after the show, as I had to get back to campus by midnight so as not to incur any late fees for my bus pass, but based on their onstage banter and their grateful attitude towards the audience, they are some of the nicest, humblest, most well-adjusted guys around; in a business full of assholes, that’s really saying something, and they get on with each other just as well as with the crowd. It’s impossible think of them ever breaking up from some internal strife (knock on wood), and I think, much to the delight of their devoted fan base, these close friends will be performing and putting out records together for years to come.
They close the show with the classic 16-minutes epic off of Clarity: Goodbye Sky Harbor - inspired by the novel A Prayer For Owen Meany, for all you John Irving fans. Just as it’s done on the album, Jim sets his guitar down after a teeth-rattling intro and puts his foot on a pedal, creating a hypnotic lullaby out of intricate vocal loops.
But of course, that’s not all, and prompted by a chanting audience, the band returns to the stage with an encore composed of Invented, The Middle, and, seemingly just for the guy with the biggest grin in the building, Sweetness. Oh yes. What a dizzy dance, indeed.
geoff
Setlist:
Bleed American
Praise Chorus
My Best Theory
Coffee & Cigarettes
Lucky Denver Mint
Let It Happen
Cautioners
Futures
Big Casino
Dizzy
Action Needs An Audience
Pain
23
Evidence
For Me This Is Heaven
Hear You Me
Work
Blister
Goodbye Sky Harbor
Encore:
Invented
The Middle
Sweetness
(excuse the crummy cell phone photos)
