Last night, Rae, Katie and I went to see Jimmy Eat World at the House of Blues in Boston. I’ve been listening to them since 2001 (Bleed American is a top five desert island album for sure!), but this was my first time seeing them live since I went to college in the middle of nowhere.
As usual, the crowd was skewed heavily toward college students. Katie’s young cousin was talking to me about the wide appeal of Jimmy Eat World — how even people who are 40 might listen to them! I felt the need to point out that people around 40 are kind of the target audience, since the members of the band themselves are nearly 40! What was odd to me was how many teenagers were there. I kind of expected a repeat of last month’s Barenaked Ladies concert — lots of 30-somethings getting in touch with their late 90s/early 00s selves!
For once in my concert-going history, I arrived early enough to get a spot in the front (I hate butting in front of people — I’m tall). The opening band was called Royal Bangs and they were pretty good, I think. When you’re listening to something you’ve never heard before at an extremely high volume, a bit of the nuance gets lost. They did have a very interesting stage setup, however — glowing orbs and a LASER!
http://instagram.com/p/cptzg8QSds/
The first time the laser came on, I thought it was some kind of projectile coming toward me!
I guess I’d been taking for granted how many great albums JEW had come out with over the years, because I was actually kind of surprised how amazing the show was. I’m not completely sure why, but this was probably the best show I’ve been to since I moved to Boston — and that’s including some other groups that I LOVE. Part of it was because I love the House of Blues (SO much better than the Bank of America Pavilion). And part of it was that we managed to get a good spot close to the stage (but far from people’s lame attempts at crowd surfing).
But mostly I was just super excited to finally see a band that’s been a consistent favorite for over a decade. I danced like a madwoman to my favorite song (A Praise Chorus!) and even got a little teary during the acoustic solo version of For Me This is Heaven. My inner emo college student would approve!
The song from backstage, on the band’s Instagram.
For Science! 