Jimmy Eat World / Reubens Accomplice @ NYC 2/23

March 24, 2009

To commemorate their third full-length album, released exactly ten years ago on February 23, 1999, Jimmy Eat World embarked on a ten city tour across America, playing Clarity in full at each stop. The first night occured in New York City with support from state-mates Reubens Accomplice. Jimmy Eat World’s sound has evolved slowly over the sixteen years they have been together, but the Mark Trombino-produced Clarity marked an enormous change for the band, and not only because Jim Adkins took over lead vocal duties.

A quartet from Phoenix, Reubens Accomplice looks good on paper: tours with excellent bands (such as The Format, The Weakerthans, and of course, Jimmy Eat World), a pedal steel guitar, a couple of competent singers, and a handful of musicians who effortlessly switch between instruments on stage. Unfortunately, the band never executes as well as they should–the songs are uninteresting and bland. The band played a fairly brief set, offering nothing memorable by the night’s end

Jimmy Eat World began their set with the haunting melody of “Table for Glasses”. Drummer Zach Lind provided the backbone for song, and indeed the entire evening, combining live percussion with the album’s essential samples. Frontman Jim Adkins faithfully sang the album in its original demeanor, which–true to the album’s mood–kept things somewhat somber until “Your New Aesthetic”, which suddenly found the crowd on their feet, singing along: “Make them open the request line, and let selection kill the old, take back the radio!”

Jimmy Eat World frontman Jim Adkins.

Jimmy Eat World frontman Jim Adkins.

The bouncy, punk-pop “Believe In What You Want” kept things moving until the sobering “A Sunday” once again moved the show into its somber tone. As it does on the album, Tom Linton’s cutting guitar on “Crush” once again picks things up and keeps the crowd moving until  “12/23″95″ slows things down again. These drastic changes in mood define Clarity, and indeed Jimmy Eat World, experts at crafting both fast-paced and slower songs. “Just Watch the Fireworks” showcases another defining aspect of the album: Adkins’s ability to tell a story with just a few words and expand them across an entire song. At over seven minutes, the song’s few lyrics are constantly repeated but the song never drags; the simple repetition is quite powerful.

The Clarity set ended beautifully with eight minutes of “Goodbye Sky Harbor”. The band departed briefly, returning to perform an encore that consisted of b-sides from the Clarity era and more recent singles. The setlist, in its entirety:

Table for Glasses
Lucky Denver Mint
Your New Aesthetic
Believe in What You Want
A Sunday
Crush
12/23/95
Ten
Just Watch the Fireworks
For Me This is Heaven
Clarity
Blister
Goodbye Sky Harbor
What Would I Say to You Now
No Sensitivity
Work
Pain
The Middle
Sweetness

Surprisingly, nothing from the band’s latest album, Chase this Light, was performed during the encore, but hits like “The Middle” captured the entire crowd. Though billed as a Clarity tour, much of the crowd still knew little from the album aside from warmly-received singles “Lucky Denver  Mint” and “Blister”, with sing-alongs eventually engaging even the casual Jimmy Eat World fan who was experiencing the album for the first time. The band departed with “Sweetness”–a song that dates back to the Clarity-era, despite not seeing an official release until 2001–a defining Jimmy Eat World song that exemplifies their ability to write big choruses.

Executing close to perfection for an hour and a half, Jimmy Eat World showcased why they are one of the strongest pop-rock bands of the last decade. The tour’s last stop in Arizona will be released as a live album on April 7; if you missed this tour, do not hesitate to pick it up and experience Jimmy Eat World at one of their finest hours.

1 Comment | Jimmy Eat World, New York, New York City, Reubens Accomplice, Terminal 5 | Permalink
Posted by Anthony Charles Ambrose

Coheed and Cambria / Fred Mascherino @ NYC 10/22

November 14, 2008

The Neverender Tour is a great idea. During four nights in New York City, Coheed and Cambria will perform their entire discography–one album per night in preparation for the band’s next disc, a prequel to the entire Coheed and Cambria story. The first night tells the first part of the current Coheed and Cambria saga through The Second Stage Turbine Blade. The shows will occur at Terminal 5, a 3000 person venue, and will be filmed for a DVD package. As part of the evening’s festivities, longtime friend of the band Fred Mascherino was invited to open. Currently frontman of the dismal The Color Fred, Mascherino used to front the excellent, but now defunct, Breaking Pangaea. It was during those years that Breaking Pangaea took Coheed and Cambria on their first proper tour (explaining that the band’s first tour van didn’t even have a receiver, Mascherino noted that Coheed and Cambria instead tied a boombox to the dashboard), and Coheed and Cambria founder Claudio Sanchez couldn’t help but return the favor sending Mascherino an invitation to open the evening and indeed kick off the entire Neverender Tour.

Fred Mascherino opening the evening.

Fred Mascherino opened the evening with a mix of songs across his career. Photo by Rubén Navarro Martín.

Fred Mascherino played a mix of Breaking Pangaea songs (including “Lullaby”) and his new The Color Fred material, even doing a cover of Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature” from the epic 1982 Thriller. The quality of Mascherino’s material is night and day: Breaking Pangaea songs are well-written and sound really good live; The Color Fred material is bland and forgettable, hardly interesting live.

The real attraction this evening, Coheed and Cambria’s The Second Stage Turbine Blade began shortly after Mascherino left the stage. After title track’s eerie into, the band soon moved onto “Time Consumer” and then “Devil in Jersey City” (complete with “it’s Shabutie!”). It took the band awhile to heat up, and unfortunately that meant comparatively less-than-stellar performances of the album’s best songs.

With a new electric intro, “Hearshot Kid Disaster” began the band taking true form, destroying the studio counterparts of the rest of the album. “Junesong Provision”, once a staple in the Coheed and Cambria live show, made its triumphant return; “Neverender” never sounded better. “Godsend Conspirator” and its “IRO-Bot” counterpart were electrifying and unexpectedly powerful.

It’s unfortunate that the band took so long to hit stride, because essentials such as “Delirium Trigger” and “Everything Evil” are some of my favorite songs the band has recorded. Interestingly, various interludes followed between select songs, shaking things up slightly for those expecting certain opening riffs to follow immediately after one song’s end.

After a long break, the band returned with a three-song preview of the next seventy-two hours: “In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3″, “Welcome Home”, and “No World For Tomorrow”. Regrettably, I didn’t stick through the wait and missed these performances. The full set:

Second Stage Turbine Blade
Time Consumer
Devil in Jersey City
Everything Evil
Delirium Trigger
Hearshot Kid Disaster
33
Junesong Provision
Neverender
God Send Conspirator
IRO-Bot
In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
Welcome Home
No World For Tomorrow

It should go without saying that adding a powerhouse drummer to your lineup will make your live show stronger; Chris Pennie, former drummer of The Dillinger Escape Plan, takes Coheed and Cambria’s live act to an entirely new plane. He’s a flawless metronome, and his new fills to the once somewhat simple debut album are a joy to experience live. While Claudio Sancehez may steal the crowd’s attention (even waving his guitar like a gun at points throughout the set), Pennie’s solid drumming is the backbone to the band’s potent live attack.

Claudio Sanchez showcasing not only his ability to write fiction, but also his ability to shred.

Claudio Sanchez with his Gibson E2. Photo by Rubén Navarro Martín.

Almost as powerful as the band’s performance were Sanchez’s words about the debut album and about his characters Coheed and Cambria. With his parents in the audience, Sanchez explained that the album’s title came from a part that his father made while working in a factory. He also explained that while the story of Coheed and Cambria began based on his life and his travels, he soon began writing the story based on the lives of his parents.

Even with a few hiccups (a slow start; the band’s catalog, including TSSTB songs, being played through the PA before sets–who wants to hear the studio version of a song you’re about to experience live), the night was put together extremely well. Unfortunately, I am unable to attend the rest of the Neverender nights in New York City, but if the band’s first performance is any indication, then the rest of the albums’ treatment will be an incredibly worthwhile experience for anyone at least slightly interested in the band.

All photos by the incredible Rubén Navarro Martín.

1 Comment | Coheed and Cambria, Fred Mascherino, New York, New York City, Terminal 5 | Permalink
Posted by Anthony Charles Ambrose

Hot Water Music / Thursday / Paint it Black @ NYC 7/12

August 7, 2008

Punk rock, in it’s true form, isn’t about three chords. “Emo”, in it’s true form, isn’t about girl’s jeans.

Still, these terms are so misapplied (and the misapplications are so widely accepted and believed) that it’s dangerous even attempting to use them. To put things accurately, however, punk rock was alive in New York City on a cool Saturday night. In addition to the three bands whole-heartedly embodying punk’s ethics at Terminal 5, Manhattan had a handful of other punk shows including Alkaline Trio/The Fashion/American Steal and Circle Jerks/Dillinger Four; Brooklyn and other boroughs had even more.

The 3000-capacity Terminal 5 isn’t quite the venue you’d expect for a punk rock show. To drive that point home, there’s no stage diving due to a massive barrier. It is important to note, however, security was sparse–if in the crowd at all; a nice change from most of New York’s over-aggressive security-packed venues. Also unlike a typical punk show, the venue’s sound was crisp and clear. Many small venues aren’t equipped with top-of-the-line sound systems; Terminal 5’s sound was the best I had ever experienced.

Philadelphia natives Paint it Black took the stage at the 7:30. Although I’m a huge fan of Dan Yemin’s Lifetime (and Kid Dynamite), I had never seen Paint it Black live. My expectations were high; his other bands weren’t slouches, each renowned for an incredible live show. Paint it Black did not disappoint. Only about fifty kids (remember, this is a multi-floor, 3000-person venue!) showed enthusiam, but the band did their absolute best to connect with each and every fan. This isn’t Bon Jovi (who was playing a subway away–that’s one more band playing in Manhattan that night!) styled arena rock; this is a band that thrives on the intimacy of basement shows.

Playing until 8PM, to the best of my recollection their set looked like this:

Past Tense, Future Perfect
Pink Slip
Womb Envy
CVA
Dead Precedents
The Ledge
Ghosts
Atheists in Foxholes
So Much for Honour Among Thieves
Void
Cannibal
White Kids Dying of Hunger
We Will Not
Memorial Day
Atticus Finch

Thursday, recently added co-headliners to tonight’s bill, took the stage after about fifteen minutes, an impressive set-change time. Unusual for a Thursday show, I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to catch up with the band beforehand. I was wondering about their upcoming split with Envy; they answered my unasked question by playing “In Silence” (or is it “In Solace”?), a new instrumental track from that split midway through their set, which contained the Thursday-typical amount of songs, fourteen:

For the Workforce, Drowning
Between Rupture and Rapture
Dead Songs
Paris in Flames
The Other Side of the Crash / Over and Out (Of Control)
Understanding in a Car Crash
Signals Over the Air
Sugar in the Sacrament
At This Velocity
Division St.
In Silence
Jet Black New Year
Tomorrow I’ll Be You
Autobiography of a Nation

I’ve reviewed Thursday a countless number of times; not much new to report. I’m beginning to hope the band begins to shake their setlist up a bit–songs like “Division St.” are feeling tired, and “Jet Black New Year” just doesn’t kick as hard when it’s been played at every show, on every tour, since 2002. It’s nice to see the band taking another stab at “Tomorrow I’ll Be You”, but it was definitely their weakest song of the evening.

The song from their upcoming Envy split was completely instrumental, with Geoff stepping away from the microphone and stepping up to a synthesizer. This makes the second song (of three planned for the release, and possibly four recorded) revealed for the split due this fall. Whereas I am completely stoked for the previous one (unveiled in Poughkeepsie), I’m not overly excited about the instrumental. With an already-short setlist, I don’t feel like there is room in their setlist for vocal-free tracks. Geoff’s lyrics and vocals are a giant part of this band and what makes them the essential post-hardcore/emocore band, especially live.

On the heels of an incredible performance by Thursday, Florida’s Hot Water Music took the stage about twenty minutes later around 9:45 (again, score points for the excellent Terminal 5 for quick set changes). The third and final band of the punk-filled evening, Hot Water Music played a solid set spanning their entire existence. The band wasted no time during their hour-long set with eighteen songs:

Remedy
Free Radio Gainseville
Rooftops
Trusty Chords
I Was On a Mountain
It’s Hard to Know
Paper Thin
Jack of All Trades
It’s Hard to Know
All Heads Down
Moonpies for Misfits
Wayfarer
A Flight and a Crash
Giver
Manual
The Sense
At the End of a Gun
Turnstile

The crowd was certainly stoked to hear their favorite band return from hiatus, with every singalong eliciting full crowd participation. I’ve seen few bands have more fun on stage than Hot Water Music did Saturday night. The band dedicated “The Sense” (the first song on the completely ridiculous and trivial “Emo Game“) to “emo kids”, apparently joking about the fact that much of the crowd either became Hot Water Music fans through that game or only knows that particular song.

By 11PM, the show had concluded and all three bands had proven exactly why they are some of the best at what they do, and why these bands are completely about the music and punk ethic. Early in the night, Yemin took shots at bands in Alternative Press and the publication itself, proudly proclaiming that this scene isn’t and has never been about makeup and dollar signs. While certainly a true comment, his band (in addition to Thursday and Hot Water Music)’s actions spoke louder than those words.

2 Comments | Hot Water Music, New York City, Paint it Black, Terminal 5, Thursday | Permalink
Posted by Anthony Charles Ambrose