JIMMY EAT WORLD with GRATITUDE at Kool Haus, November 19. Tickets: $22. Attendance: 1,800. Rating: NN
Rating: NN
Suburban house parties were in short supply on Friday night.
As Jimmy Eat World took over the big smoke, the collective sigh of parents could almost be heard all the way down on Queens Quay. And why not? No vomit stains on the rug to clean, no one stealing jewellery from their dresser and no cigarette burns on the living room couch. I think it’s safe to say parents love Jimmy Eat World.
I arrived just as the openers were taking the stage. Having survived the long lineups and over zealous security staff, the crowd had all the pent-up frustration and awkwardness of a grade 9 dance. The majority in attendance were still four years away from being able to buy a beer and look cool without even trying.
Once I finished with my traumatic flashback – I was rejected by the cute goth chick with the Robert Smith shirt who wouldn’t dance with me because she had issues with my New Order button – I turned my attention to the anthemic powerhouse Gratitude . Imagine Creed fronted by Bono and you get the idea.
Lead singer Jonah Matranga had me fully expecting to hear the words “This song is not a rebel song, this song is Sunday Bloody Sunday,” but instead he was all, “I’m glad to see we’re both doing our jobs. Ours is to get you off, and yours is to get off on us.”
This provided the most creepy/thrilling moment of the night, which says a lot about the headliners.
Jimmy Eat World may be of the Weezer/Blink-182 school of rock, but they obviously skipped the class about stage presence. They have none, which is really a bad thing when mated with songs whose lyrics rarely talk about anything deeper than making out in the back seat of a car. Or was that the front seat? In any case, I was painfully reminded of the opening lines of Neil Young’s live disc Year Of The Horse, in which he can be heard saying, half-sarcastically, “It’s all the same song.”
If Jimmy Eat World speak for the disaffected youth whose parents just don’t understand, then tell me exactly what there is to understand. What’s so complicated about going to the mall and snatching up deals at the Gap and remembering that your mom is picking you up in front of the movie theatre at 9 sharp?
