The Get Up Kids
Photo by Ken Sears
The Get Up Kids are one of those bands that have always been a guilty pleasure for me. When I discovered them, I felt like I was too old to be into them. That's probably because I was in my early to mid 20's and a lot of their fans were teenagers. Plus, my music snobbery hated to admit I liked a popular emo band. But, Something to Write Home About was always my go to album of theirs. I'd pull it out and listen every six to nine months or so and be blown away at how great it was as a whole. When The Get Up Kids announced they were going on a twenty-fifth anniversary tour for that album and playing it in full, I knew I couldn't miss it.
Smoking Popes
Photo by Ken Sears
Smoking Popes opened the show, and I was embarrassingly not familiar with them. They've long been a band I've known was great and always meant to spend more time listening to them, but for whatever reason I just never did. Well, turns out they are fantastic. They're defined as a pop punk band, but I heard more 90's post grunge alt-rock than anything else. They're one of those bands I was aware of in the 90's, but just missed out on, so now I'm angry at myself since I could have been enjoying them for the past thirty years. Luckily, they promised a new album in the near future followed by a tour, so we have that to look forward to. The only problem with their set was the crowd was a bit lackluster. The applause was there, but with a few exceptions, the audience mostly just stood and watched, which led me to expect a dead crowd all night.
Smoking Popes
Photo by Ken Sears
Turns out the crowd of mostly thirty and forty somethings was just saving up their energy, because they exploded once The Get Up Kids took the stage. Opening with "Holiday" certainly didn't hurt, as that is one of the greatest set opening tracks of all time. There was even crowdsurfing starting off with "Action & Action," which truly surprised me because I assumed all of our crowdsurfing days were long behind us. It seemed like the completely packed venue was screaming along to most lyrics, but especially the opening "Come tomorrow, I'll be on my way back home" from "I'm a Loner Dottie, a Rebel." And who could resist doing that?
The Get Up Kids
Photo by Ken Sears
I assumed after they finished with Something to Write Home About, The Get Up Kids would come back for a two or three song encore. Instead, they came back for nine songs, almost matching the length of the main set. Almost half those songs came from 1997's Four Minute Mile, so nostalgia was certainly the theme of the night. And, of course, they played "Mass Pike" during the encore.
This was the third time I've seen The Get Up Kids live, but the first in over twenty years. Thursday night's show at Big Night Live was the best they've ever been. Age certainly hasn't slowed them down at all. Although I'm sure more than a few audience members were taking some extra Advil Friday morning.
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