(Images and video: NYCDreamin Archives)
I have to admit I was a bit horrified a few months back when The Gorgeous One suggested we go see emo-popsters Jimmy Eat World. Can't say I know much of their stuff (O.K., I know one song) but I know it's "alt/college/power/emo-nerd pop" (I think) and that shit usually scares me. But J. likes them and she goes to all the stuff I drag her to, so I willingly agreed that we'd go. We picked up our tickets the morning they went on sale and it's probably a good thing, last night's show at the legendary First Avenue in downtown Minneapolis looked to be a near sell out crowd by the time the headliners went on.
Anyway, downtown was a mess - due to a 6:30pm MN Twins game that was having a rain delay due to the miserable, light, chilly rain that was descending. But the baseball fans and rock fans were not to be deterred by a bit of rain, so they were all converging on the same area of downtown at the same time - the doors at First Avenue opened at 6:00pm. We arrived just a few minutes after that, after first paying $13.00 (!!) to park in "Ramp A" - goddammotherfugging MN Twins and their new stadium messing up my downtown!! Sorry about that. Anyway, we parked the car in this rip-off joint, walked a few blocks to 1st Ave and I snapped a few photos on the street when we arrived...
This shot is looking across the street from in front of First Avenue, looking South-East. The Target Center would be to your left, across the street.
First Avenue has, I think, 3 of these display cases along the outside walls, displaying a poster for which band is playing that particular evening. Tonight it's...
We give the man at the door our tickets, get our wrists stamped (with an "Ice Cream Cone" stamp(?!?) and walk into the club. Just inside the doors there is this painting of the club, done by a local artist. It's pretty cool. It's nice to be back in the club, it's the first show I've been to here in the past three years...
So we make our way inside and the front rows are filling up quickly. We grab a Gatorade from the dude at the bar and get situated near the front, maybe 6-8 rows back or so. Not a bad view at all, we're off to the right a bit, but we've got a good spot. We settle in and wait, and 6:30 comes and goes and no opening band yet. They finally came out on stage around 7:00pm and introduce themselves as Civil Twilight. They're originally from Cape Town, South Africa, but said last night they are now based in Nashville, TN. This was their first gig in Minneapolis and by the time they finished up their set they got quite a nice response from the crowd. The Gorgeous One and I both agreed - we had both enjoyed them. This was the final song of their set...
After a brief set change, it was time for the evening's headliner, Phoenix, Arizona based Jimmy Eat World. The came out very high energy right away and most of my fears of this show being a suckfest vanished rapidly - it looked like they would indeed be pretty good, which they were. There were a few points throughout their set 20 song set that kinda lost me, but for the most part I was with them the whole way. The Gorgeous One, who wasn't too thrilled with their latest studio effots, said "the material sounded quite a bit better live."
Here are the opening five numbers from the show. The video for the first song, "Bleed American" sounds kinda distorted - the drums were really wreaking havoc on the camera mic, but fortunately this problem did not persist through the entire show, and by video #2, it seems to have mostly abated. Enjoy...
Bleed American
My Best Theory
Coffee And Cigarettes
Lucky Denver Mint
Let It Happen
The band continued on with another 15 songs, the rest of the setlist follows. We filmed the entire show - for those of you you wishing to watch more, just click each song title below and it will take you to the video on Youtube.
Table For Glasses/ Futures/ Big Casino/ Dizzy/ Action Needs An Audience/ Pain/ 23/ Evidence/ Hear You Me/ Work/ Blister/ Goodbye Skyharbor/ Invented
...and, what the hell, here's the final two songs of the evening as well.
The Middle-Sweetness
So in conclusion, I enjoyed it alot more than I thought I would and the Gorgeous One had a great time, so what more could you ask for on a rainy Friday evening other than some genuinely good rock and roll? Not much...not much.
*As I finish this post late Saturday afternoon, under threat of a Tornado watch, in just a few hours we are off again, this time to Litchfield, Minnesota to catch a set of classic rock and heavy metal classics by our friends Division Nine. We'll have some photos and video from that show here tomorrow...
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