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 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.

Source: Tom Mullen (tom@tvtrecords.com)

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