JIMMY
EAT WORLD
+
COACH
Location:
Heidelberg, Karlstorbahnhof
Date:
February 4th, 2001
Almost
two years after ‘Clarity”, the latest album of Jimmy Eat World, came out in
the States, it was finally released in Germany. Until then, you could only get
this masterpiece as an import. Coinciding with this release were some shows in
Germany, one of which took place in Heidelberg. Although this is not the closest
city to where I live, three friends of mine and me decided to go there because
hey, Jimmy Eat World rule! A conclusion of this evening leaves me with mixed
feelings. Both bands were great, but the audience and the location sucked. But
maybe I should begin from the start:
Printed
on our tickets was the opening of the club at 8.30 pm. So after we had eaten
something we went there around that time and saw that lot of people were
standing in front of the entrance. This entrance was some stairs up, so we
couldn’t see what was going on. But we believed that the doors had not been
opened yet because there was absolutely no movement among the people standing
there. But after some time, the crowd advanced a little bit towards the entrance.
After waiting for about half an hour we finally made it up the stairs and now we
could see why it took so long to get in: There were two security guys standing
at the entrance, both dressed in black jackets with a white “Security” logo
on them and with a mic in their ear. Wow. These two guys were responsible for
the extreme delay in getting in, because people were allowed to enter only in
groups of five people! I mean everyone was looking dangerous indeed (yeah,
right), so it could have been possible that someone was trying to smuggle in a
bomb or something. But why didn’t they search the fans properly then? Mostly
they were just looking at them and asking them to open their backpacks. But why
the hell did that take so long?
Anyway, after we finally entered the club we could see that it was a rather noble one. I guess on other nights there are plays being performed. If I remember right, COACH, the opening act, began around 9 pm. I don’t know how many people were attending the show, but it was quite crowded, although not in a way that it was packed and you couldn’t move. I mean it was no problem making our way to the front row after COACH had finished their set.
Before
I get to them, let me say a few words about the audience. I have no problem with
JIMMY EAT WORLD being successful, in fact I think it is pretty stupid if people
don’t seem to like them anymore just because more people get to know them. And
I don’t care either if the video for “Lucky Denver Mint” is shown on
German Music Television very often, if the band appears in Burger King Magazine,
if they are in a German TV show that is rather stupid and if “Clarity” is in
the German charts. I think it’s the music that’s important, even if many
people seem to disagree. Or how do you explain that the majority of fans who saw
JIMMY EAT WORLD on their previous German tour was apparently not attending this
show tonight? I don’t know… But many people were really not my cup of tea.
One could plainly see that most of them knew “Lucky Denver Mint” and nothing
more. Maybe some of them even bought “Clarity” before, who knows. I didn’t
like these people that much, because it seemed to me that the next day they
could go to a Bryan Adams show and go nuts as well. I don’t want to say that I
am one of these guys that judge people by their appearance or by the number of
“underground” shows they attended in the past, but it was “funny” anyway
to see these people on their first Emo show ever. Hey, but now let’s finally
get to the show itself.
As
I already said, COACH were the opening act. This German four piece is, if I am
right, the first German band on the American label Doghouse. And I can
understand why, because their music was great in my eyes. Sometimes calm,
sometimes loud, but always good songwriting. One could describe their sound as
Emo, even though not too many people seem to like that description nowadays. And
what is Emo, by the way? So let’s say they were melodic yet not polished and
had some nice keyboard effects accompanying their sound. Good band.
After
COACH left it was time for JIMMY EAT WORLD. It didn’t take very long until
they entered the stage and began their set with “Goodbye Sky Harbor” from
“Clarity” which was a little surprise. But they didn’t play the 16 minute
album version but a shorter one. The sound was great, the lightshow cool and
other than some people after the show said I didn’t think that JIMMY EAT WORLD
seemed to be tired. Jim Adkins’ performance was very energetic, and the rest
of the band seemed to enjoy the show as well. I can’t say how long they played
in total, but they played many songs from “Clarity”, unfortunately only one
song from “Static prevails”, about three or four new songs and some tracks
off of 7”s etc. Here’s the playlist:
Goodbye
Sky Harbor
Your
new aesthetic
Crush
Believe
in what you want
If
you don’t, don’t
Sweetness
For
me this is heaven
Clarity
What
would I say to you now
Bleed
American
Softer
Thinking,
that’s all
Blister
No
sensitivity
Lucky
Denver Mint
Of
course “Lucky Denver Mint” was the last encore, so all the kiddies were
happy.
So,
what can I say in retrospect about this show? The bands were great, but JIMMY
EAT WORLD should definitely have played more songs from “Static prevails” (I
was missing the hits “Claire”, “Rockstar”, “Seventeen”, “Call it
in the air” etc.). The club was ok when it comes to the stage, sound etc., but
the Security guys were superfluous. The audience was strange. All in all I think
it was a fine show if you just look at the bands, but if you consider the whole
evening, it was, let’s say, strange.
(Stefan
Münch)