JIMMY EAT WORLD AND MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA DELIVER LEGENDARY PERFORMANCE AT THE ICONIC GREEK THEATRE IN LA
WORDS BY SEAN FORTIER. PHOTOS BY NIKKI NEUMANN
Last Wednesday I continued my Get Some Magazine-sponsored tour of all of my first favorite bands (cheers Timmy!). I’d had prior commitments, but when my friend Gabriel found out that Jimmy Eat World was playing the Greek with Manchester Orchestra he released me from my duties and regaled me with tales from when he saw the two performing in the bay during the early 2000’s. And now they’re playing the Greek together, with Jimmy Eat World celebrating their 30th anniversary as a band. I called my Lyft immediately.
The Greek is such a quintessentially Los Angeles venue. It somehow manages to be both intimate and grandiose, with sloping amphitheater seating and a verdant backdrop, and a stage big enough to rock out on. It straddles the picnic in the park/full-on-music-festival line perfectly, which suited the night’s entertainment.
Middle Kids, a Sydney-based rock band with classic pop sensibilities opened up the evening. Their hit “Edge of Town” stole the show - getting fans dancing and screaming the chorus. The bassist Tim Fitz told the crowd “This feels like a once-in-a-lifetime experience, to be playing to you all at the Greek.” Something special to share that once-in-a-lifetime moment with a band so far from their home.
Manchester Orchestra is a band that requires no introduction. Famous for soaring vocals and a penchant for building into frenetic choruses. They expertly craft delicate melodies that boil and churn and then explode. Each and every song is a rollercoaster. “Simple Math” is a perfect example, of goosebumps. “Cope” shivers with gargantuan opening riffs before drifting tender. They ended their set with the wonderfully cinematic “The Silence”.
And then Jimmy Eat World. The seminal alt-rock band. On a victory lap tour. I first saw them at a KROQ event when I was 17 and had somehow wound up in the front couple of rows of seating, with Jim Adkins standing right behind me.
“Hey, are you the singer of Jimmy Eat World?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Can I shake your hand?”
“Of course, you can!”
It was my first time meeting a member of a band that I was a fan of, and the brief interaction set the benchmark for all future interactions. Why wouldn’t you be a gentleman? That’s Jimmy Eat World. A beacon of positivity smiling in the face of sardonic rock and roll.
They kicked off the night with a mix of old and new. Sandwiching “Sweetness” and “Bleed American” between “Congratulations” and “Something Loud.” The new songs still come with that Jimmy Eat World special sauce, with effervescent vocals and driving guitars - but the night’s biggest moments were reserved for the crowd pleasers. I sang every word, along with a raucous amphitheater.
Jimmy Eat World brought the energy, rising above subpar sound issues for parts of the show and conducting massive singalongs for their familiar hits. There was plenty of love for their early catalog as well, with songs like “For Me, This Is Heaven” getting the sing-along treatment.
They finished the show with a touching plea to love and support one another, before launching into the biggest sing-along of the night - “The Middle.” I screamed out every lyric, determined to do my teenage karaoke-loving self proud. And as Nikki and I waited in the shuttle line to get to our car, I couldn’t help but smile as a group of young teenagers bounced off the walls in the line in front of us. We joked about the line-making “The Middle” puns, and I was transported back in time, to my own teenage self going to my first shows. Jimmy Eat World, a band that formed only a few years after my birth and supported me through my awkward teenage years… Still resonating with newer and newer generations of music lovers. In the middle of the ride? Seems like it.