Jimmy Eat World - State Theater, Portland ME 7.22.02
Posted by Josh Nason on 08.29.2002
Jimmy Eat World put on a good show that gave their Portland audience a history of exactly where they came from with plenty of current events to snack on.
I hate being the old guy at concerts, especially when I’m all of 24 years
old.
Such was the case when my brother and I saw Jimmy Eat World perform at the
State Theater in Portland, ME, on July 22, a hot night that created a nice
sweaty environment for everyone involved. Dominated by young high schoolers
more satisfied with being seen and seeing others than the actual band they
paid for, my environment was filled with youthful testosterone and estrogen.
Actually, the energy fit the darlings of tweener-radio, Jimmy Eat World.
Fueled by “The Middle” blasting on every form of upbeat/alternative radio
over the past six months, Jimmy has officially hit it big after several
releases and made into dangerous Blink-182 territory. If you remember, Blink
was in a similar position about two years ago, having put out a few indie
releases and then Dude Ranch, their major label debut. A great album that
spawned a mid-level hit in “Dammit,” Blink was comfortably in the punk
fraternity, yet not too big to be considered sellouts. Interestingly enough,
Jimmy was the wedding band when Blink frontman Mark Hoppus tied the knot.
Then Enema Of The State came out and following the anthem-like “The Rock
Show,” we were treated to the dreaded single, “All The Small Things.” After
the video (a nice piece of work parodying all of the pop music icons of the
time – N’Sync, Backstreet, Britney and Christina) hit TRL, it was all over
from there. You couldn’t drive anywhere during the summer of 2000 without
hearing that damn song at least five times on every station possible. It
became Blink’s calling card and ticket to hearing screaming teen girls at
shows rather than pierced boys wearing black. Blink 182 now finds itself
snug in bed with the same artists it once made fun of. Ironic…but I digress.
Jimmy, fronted by Jim Adkins, played for almost two hours, a great value to
us that care about where our ticket money is going. Spinning through their
latest self-titled album (initially named Bleed American before 9/11),
Adkins simply rocked out. No jumping around on stage, no Stapp-esque
bravado…it was just him playing his guitar and singing his heart out. The
rest of the band – Tom Linton (guitar), Rick Burch (bass) and Zach Lind
(drums) coupled the effort on “If You Don’t, Don’t, Bleed American,” “The
Middle,” and “Your House.”
With younger crowds like this, bands can sometimes have trouble when it
comes time to delve into ‘older material.’ For those that only sampled “The
Middle” and “Sweetness,” older stuff may not be what they want to hear and
will react as such. No problem with that here as the Mesa, AZ, group’s early
material held the energy level up and kept the kids’ interest. I will say it
was also refreshing to see so many teenagers and no moshing. Besides some
fun-spirited crowd surfing, the annoying crush of people packed into a small
hall was absent.
Closing with not one, but two encores, Jimmy Eat World put on a good show
that gave their Portland audience a history of exactly where they came from
with plenty of current events to snack on. For $25, it was definitely a
recommended show.
Openers Cave In and Promise Ring? Not so good. Cave In had a lot of energy
but no substance, while Promise Ring played waaaaaayyyyy too long..
The 411: Jimmy Eat World is definitely worth seeing live – just wear some cologne and prepare to hit on some 14-year-olds. Yahoo!
