TGUK giving fans 'Something to Write Home About'

There has never been a time when I have complained about living in the Midwest. Certainly, people living outside of the area have criticisms and will always have their stereotypes. But having traveled to many different areas of the country, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

That said, as much as I love living in Illinois, there is another city in the Midwest I wish I could have been last night. The Get Up Kids played a secret show for about 300 people at Kansas City's Record Bar. It was the band's first show in nearly four years and, even more disappointing than simply missing out on the show was the fact that they succumbed to one of music's biggest and latest trends of playing through an entire album. Not surprising, they chose to perform Something to Write Home About .

The breakup of TGUK was only one in a stretch of some of my favorite bands calling it quits. Also notably was Hey Mercedes around the same time along with rumors of a permanent disbandment of Cursive . If only I could have been at Record Bar to witness the reunion.

Apparently, the secret show was only a warm up. TGUK have decided to give in to yet another one of rock's clichés - a reunion tour. Vagrant Records is set to release a deluxe, 10th anniversary reissue of Something to Write Home About which will include a DVD and photo book. And yes, in order to promote it, TGUK will be touring in 2009. It looks like I will be asking for a night/day off of work sometime soon.

The only thing that would make it better is to see them at Emerson Theatre in Indianapolis and fall victim to a bit of déjà vu. Emerson was the first place I saw TGUK live and an interesting story follows.

My friend, Mickey, and I received directions from a local record shop owner on how to get to Emerson. Just when we had gotten frustrated with our bad luck, we decided to stop at McDonald's to grab some food before possibly giving in to ask for directions from a local. As we sat down, a group of scenesters sat down not too far down the booth. We thought they looked familiar, they asked if we were going to the show, we talked about Indy, etc. We finally noticed a tour bus across the street, and as we both looked out of the window, the bus rolled away to reveal a rather large sign that read "Emerson Theatre." We were relieved to have found the venue, and even more thankful to know we were only across the street. And as the final band took the stage that night, we were even more surprised to realize that we had just eaten our pre-show grub at McDonald's with The Get Up Kids.

Thanks to Back to Rockville there are videos of evidence and a complete set list from the Kansas City show. Make sure to check out Back to Rockville , but for now, I'll save you some time.

Set list: Holiday; Action & Reaction; Valentine; Red Letter Day; Out of Reach; Ten Minutes; The Company Dime; My Apology; I'm a Loner Dottie, a Rebel … ; Long Goodnight; Close to Home; I'll Catch You. Encore: Campfire Kansas; The One You Want; No Love; Mass Pike; Walking on a Wire.

Holiday



Ten Minutes


Out of Reach


I'll Catch You