“This is the strangest bathroom I’ve ever been in.”I’m not one for urinal conversation, as a rule, but I have to be polite, too.“I’m sure I’ve been in stranger,” I reply. “But I can’t remember when.”He laughs. “You like Jimmy?”“Yep.” I say.“You better. Been my favourite band since I was ten years old. That’s... that’s almost ten years.”Aw, hell. Now I
really feel old.There’s a few things that, if you’re feeling your age, you probably shouldn’t do. Don’t have a conversation with the new, fresh from college girl in work about what she did last summer. Don’t check to see if your hockey sweater from 1993 still fits. And don’t go in the pit at a Jimmy Eat World concert, a week before your thirtieth birthday (although my profile age is, from the looks of things, dragging me into that decade a little early).By all means, follow the example set by the rest of my Wednesday evening. Work a little late so your boss is impressed with you, and you get the added benefit of not feeling bad about staying in town a while afterwards, instead of rushing to get the early train. Take a seat in a pub under a caricature of Hemingway, read the paper the last guy left there and eat a steak sandwich with parmesan dressing washed down with a microbrew IPA. That’s a sensible, adult thing to do. Adult sensibilities wandered out of the building and into traffic, however, when the nice girl with the guest list suggested that, in the absence of my plus-One, I might not want to take up an entire booth. Maybe I’d be more comfortable taking a pit pass? Of course not, I thought. I’m a grown man! I’m supposed to be writing about this for a respected website! But that’s when it occured to me that a) it’s hard to convey the authentic show experience from a sealed off booth and b) every single book, or magazine article, or drunken conversation about the essential things to do before you hit the big three-oh involve the words ‘mosh-pit.’I think you see where this is going.After another pint in the Olympia’s bar, I push my way through to the ‘pit’ (actually just about two seat rows worth of fenced off standing room), showed my paper wristband to the security guard and took my place among what appeared to be all teenagers – all the girls looked like the younger sister of Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis, all the guys looked like Seth Cohen from ‘The OC’. As usual, I’d no idea who was supporting, so I was pleasantly surprised to hear the words ‘Hello, we’re Styrofoam, we’re from Antwerp in Belgium’ – met with blank stares, for the most part, though a few (very few, sadly) nods of recognition when they play ‘Couches In Alleys’, their 2004 song on which Ben Gibbard sang. Jim Adkins reveals later that Styrofoam had remixed a song on one of their earlier EP’s (‘Drugs Or Me’ on 2005’s ‘Stay On My Side Tonight’) and that he sings a song (‘My Next Mistake’) on the upcoming Styrofoam album, ‘A Thousand Words’. Styrofoam ("fellow Moggers,":http://mog.com/styrofoam by the way) play a pleasant, chilled-out set, smile away the heckles, and move on.Twenty minutes pass, and Jimmy Eat World come out swinging. By the end of the first two songs – ‘Big Casino’, the opener of last year’s ‘Chase This Light’ album and the hugely popular ‘Sweetness’ from 2001’s ‘Bleed American’ – singer/guitarist Jim Adkins is already soaked with sweat and I’m hoarse from singing along. We are both, however, in love with the situations in which we’ve found ourselves. Objectively, Adkins’ staccato dancing is completely at odds with the big poppy harmonies of the songs he and his band are playing, but goddamnit, it works. Jimmy Eat World – who by the way are not named after Adkins, but after the younger brother of guitarist Tom Linton – formed in Mesa, Arizona in 1993. Evolving from the hardcore punk scene, they embraced, or were embraced by, the alternately beloved and derided emocore genre; although they sound considerably more straight-laced and simply rock and roll than many of their emo contemporaries. The satirical online games at Emogame.com occasionally refer to them as being embraced by the mainstream for having made the decision to keep their balls (part of the games mythology is that male members of emo bands have ovaries.) Whereas their collars are not exactly as blue as those of say, Bruce Springsteen or The Hold Steady, they are definitely cubicle-wall grey – it’s no stretch to imagine that they’re the favourite band of the main character in ‘Office Space’. The arrangement through the show is two guitars, bass, drums and thousands of voices. No pianos, no ocarinas, no theremins (big thanks to "fairportfan":http://mog.com/fairportfan/blog_post/142865 for his post teaching me about the latter two, by the way.) Lead guitar is even discarded, briefly, during a sweet alternate version of ‘Your House’ – Adkins surrenders the acoustic guitar he’s been using during the off-speed verses when a cabling fault causes him to go mostly a cappella.The set is almost like it was constructed for a ‘Best Of...’ album tour – it’s a trip through the fifteen years of Jimmy Eat World, right from the beginning up to the present day. Not surprisingly, there’s a heavy focus on material from ‘Bleed American’ (the most succesful album) and ‘Chase This Light’ (the most recent). ‘Blister’ and ‘Just Watch The Fireworks’ (from third album ‘Clarity’) both from get an enormous reaction – the former being one of the biggest people movers in the pit that night. Maybe moreso than the screams and shoving for ‘Authority Song’ when the set is briefly made audience/drummer’s choice – and to be fair, who can fail to love a song about a John Cougar Mellencamp song that also references the Jesus and Mary Chain?As the show winds down, and Jimmy Eat World finish off with a raucous ‘The Middle’ (maybe their signature song at this point) I wonder if I’ve time to meet my sister (who’s also at the show) to say hi afterwards. As I’m taking out my phone to check the time (my watch needs a new battery) I realise I’ve three extra shirt buttons undone, I’m covered in sweat and someone elses beer, and I feel... I feel great.Like I said, there are some things you shouldn’t do when you’re starting to feel your age. But then again – maybe you should.
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