Photo by: Vladislav Grach
Everyone’s favorite blast from the past Jimmy Eat World will be coming to First Avenue on Wednesday, May 9th. Before Jimmy Eat World entered the studio to record their ninth full-length album, Integrity Blues [RCA], the members of the multiplatinum Mesa, AZ rock band did something they’ve never done in over two decades. “We took a little break,” smiles lead singer and guitarist Jim Adkins. After a successful 10th anniversary tour revisiting Futures, the musicians briefly went their separate ways at the end of 2014. Adkins released a series of 7” & embarked on his first worldwide solo tour, Lind released an EP and toured with his wife in The Wretched Desert, Linton took up boxing, and Burch opened up CaskWerks Distillery in Arizona.
When the band reconvened in November 2015, they teamed up with producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen [Paramore, M83] and began sifting through ideas. “I came to a realization,” admits Adkins. “In the break, writing was a little trickier. I wanted to change things up. So, instead of writing about a problem, I wanted to write about a solution. If you look at your life for what’s going wrong, it won’t be too hard to find things. If you start looking at what you have rather than what you’re missing out on, you come away from things with a much different perspective that’s a lot more grateful and positive. As an album, Integrity Blues is about trying to overcome that personal struggle instead of getting upset with what life could be that it isn’t.”
Although this tour is in support of the new album, you can be sure that the audience will be treated to some old favorite including JEW’s breakout hit- “The Middle”
Opening for JEW will be a personal favorite of mine- The Hotelier. It is not enough to say that The Hotelier have grown older, or wiser, or more of anything. We can trace a progression, if we like, from the explosive empowerment of It Never Goes Out to the ashen disillusionment of Home, Like Noplace Is There. We can follow an awakening of youth in suburbia attempting to learn what is right, and what is ours, and what is possible and impossible, and maybe we can’t save each other like we thought we once could. We’re awake and we’re tired and we want love in our lives again. And so we find ourselves now in Goodness, in the woods outside of the suburbs, trying to re-learn that love.
Microwave will be kicking off the night. It may have only been two years since Atlanta’s Microwave released its debut record Stovall, but much has changed in that short amount of time. While the exuberance and joy of Stovall dealt with vocalist/guitarist Nathan Hardy’s wide-eyed wonder at a world previously obscured by a strict religious upbringing and his time as a Mormon missionary – songs of innocence, if you will – Much Love details the aftermath once that awestruck amazement has been dampened by the harsh realities of life.
Tickets are still available here.
Remaining Tour Dates:
05/05 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s
05/06 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre
05/08 – Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theater
05/09 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
05/11 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
05/12 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
05/13 – Memphis, TN @ New Daisy Theatre
05/15 – Kansas City, MO @ The Truman
05/16 – Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom
05/18 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s
