Music, musings and miscellanea

This review originally appeared at Chartattack.com

Any discussion of Jimmy Eat World inevitably runs into the comment “that band that sang that song, with the video where everyone’s in their underwear.” And while the years since the Arizona quartet became top 40 stars have never been as lucrative, thanks in part to a string of good-but-not-great records, the band have nevertheless cultivated a large and very devoted audience who hang off every word frontman Jim Adkins sings. When Jimmy Eat World makes a fan, they make them for life.

Those fans were out in force Sunday night as the band hit town to promote their latest release, Invented.

From the opening chords of “Bleed American,” you could tell the band were ready to meet the high expectations of the packed and enthusiastic audience. Adkins seemed more relaxed on stage than recent tours, jumping down into the crowd to take a picture for someone’s grandmother who was apparently a big fan and frequently exchanging laughs with guitarist Tom Linton. Linton took lead vocals on both new track “Action Needs An Audience” and Clarity’s “Blister.”

More high-energy rockers have been interspersed with slower tunes of epically inconsequential teenage romance on the band’s more recent tours. But lacking a keyboardist or proper backing vocals has dragged these songs, and consequently their entire set, down.

Thankfully, Jimmy Eat World have once again found a proper touring musician in Courtney Marie Andrews, who sang on many of Invented‘s tracks. So while the rock was definitely emphasized on this night, songs like “For Me This Is Heaven” and “Hear You Me” sounded note perfect thanks to Andrews’ pipes and keyboard lines. Songs where she harmonized with Linton and Adkins were brought to new heights and she really helped the band shine on new songs like “Coffee And Cigarettes” and “Movie Life,” which were generously peppered into a set that leaned heavy on high watermarks Clarity and Bleed American.

Jimmy Eat World finished their 20-song set with a lengthy version of “Goodbye Sky Harbour” that saw Adkins looping his, Linton and Andrews’ vocals as the band jammed out, then stepped off the stage for a quick breather.

They returned with the equally epic “23,” which is probably the closest the band have ever come to actually becoming an episode of One Tree Hill. Predictably, they finished the night with “The Middle” and “Sweetness,” but didn’t let the inevitability of those songs stop them from having a good time.

They tore through “The Middle,” feeding off the crowd, with Adkins encouraging everyone to pair up and start dancing, while “Sweetness” was met with a near universal “woa-oa-oa-oas” from the crowd. While casual fans may have written this band off two records ago, Jimmy Eat World and the people that love them are doing just fine.

Here’s what Jimmy Eat World played:

“Bleed American”
“Your New Aesthetic”
“A Praise Chorus”
“My Best Theory”
“Lucky Denver Mint”
“Let it Happen”
“For Me This Is Heaven”
“Futures”
“Big Casino”
“Action Needs An Audience”
“Dizzy”
“Coffee And Cigarettes”
“Movie Life”
“Hear You Me”
“Evidence”
“Work”
“Authority Song”
“Blister”
“Pain”
“Goodbye Sky Harbour”

Encore:
“23 ”
“Get It Faster”
“The Middle”
“Sweetness”