Each band on the line-up was good individually, but there was also an aggregate effect.
More people had arrived by the time The Get Up Kids came on, but it was more than that.
It appears that the backstage area at the Hawthorne Theater must be rather small. There were staircases on each side, with hardly any wing space.
I know that because sometimes you would see a person here or there watching one of the acts, and when gear was being loaded and unloaded there was obviously not a lot of extra space.
As The Get Up Kids came on, the stairways were full. There were members from the Josh Berwanger Band and The Hotelier, and at least one person from Mean Jeans if I am not mistaken, and some other people I can't place. They wanted to watch.
So there was a densely packed energy in the audience, surging against the stage. The sides were also packed, and then on the stage there was the interplay between the band. There was a great sense of unity, but also a sense of something building. Toward the end Josh Berwanger came out and took over some vocals. It felt fitting that more people were being pulled in.
The Get Up Kids is who the audience came for. That's not taking anything away from their enjoyment of the opening acts, but there was a sense of recognition on every intro, people sung along, and even though many people in the audience seemed young for a band that was celebrating their twentieth anniversary, that didn't matter: this was their band!
It was something to be there, and see Jim Suptic throw his arm around Rob Pope, and say that they were in first grade together. Here they are now, playing music and making a crowd of people happy.
I'll periodically go back and watch the "Action & Action" video, and yes, they're older, but there is so much that is the same. Ryan Pope has the same expressions drumming. It's not that the time hasn't passed, or that it passed completely smoothly, but this is still pretty good, and it's touching. Suptic said he owed us a good show since he had been sick they last time they played there, and we got it. (I still don't think he will be allowed to live it down though.)
They were having a good time, and there was a lot of playfulness. At one point Matt Pryor came really close to James Dewees, without trying (the stage is pretty small too), but then that led to how close can we get, and backing into each other, and it didn't interrupt the song at all.
I was against the stage - right in front of Matt Pryor - with a good view of the clock. I had been keeping an eye on how well the bands were keeping to the schedule. I was impressed - they run a pretty tight ship - but then it all went out the window. The Get Up Kids went long, and no one wanted them to stop. (I think it only went about 20 minutes longer, but I had quit keeping time.)
I know the band has at times rejected the emo label, and there are legitimate reasons for that. I'll get everything I want to say about it out in this paragraph. It reminded me of this horrible Dashboard Confessional concert I went to, and some other concerts I have read about, where everyone is all into the music and singing along, knowing every word. I'd had a bad view of that because at the concert I saw it sucked all the life out the music. This concert showed me what those other concerts could have been. It doesn't have to be horrible and depressing. Maybe it just takes better music.
This was good music. Great show. I'm glad to see them still around.
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