As the date approached, however, Rach decided this big outdoor day was a bit ambitious for her, and unfortunately we couldn’t find a short-notice replacement. Ticketmaster resale was similarly useless, being allegedly unable to shift the ticket despite it being a sell-out. Bah! So it was Logan and I off down a sun-baked M4 to the ‘diff, parking up by the CIA again and wandering through a busy city centre, entering the castle grounds via the North entrance for 4.30. Already well attended for this early stage, and with the ground baked by the Summer heatwave to a parched and dusty crisp (today being mid to high 20s but feeling hotter), so we sought shade and seating on a grassy (!) knoll by the manor house, listening to opener Jay Som from a distance. The alias of US singer Melina Duterte, she and band played a pleasant but insubstantial and eminently forgettable half hour of drifting US indie folk, which would have been better suited to Lilith Fair or an Alanis support, but here was no more than background noise to mine and Logan’s conversation.
We took a wander in, pitching up halfway back, house right, for US emo veterans Get Up Kids, next up at 6.30. Opener “Satellite” set the tone, a brisk, breathless and fast number with a similar descending verse riff to The Cavedogs’ classic “Tayter Country”, and high register, yearning vocals from stocky bearded vocalist Matt Pryor. “Valentine” was a later outlier, slower, moodier and almost touching, before an earnest, stomping “Red Letter Day” led into the more expansive, Menzingers-like newie “New Colonial”, my favourite of the set by some distance. Decent if generic post-millennial pop punk stuff overall, but a little taciturn for my liking and delivered in somewhat of a hurry, as if Get Up Kids were looking to Get Off quickly…
We then went
looking for some water, finding a water station by the bar, then popped back in
for main support Rise Against at a late-feeling 7.45, following a fiddly
soundcheck. A fellow punter who’d recognised me from the Frank/ Soup gig (“you’re
the guy going mental for American Hi-Fi, and you fucked off straight after
their set!” Guilty as charged, m’lud…) had given us the heads-up on RA and
particularly vocalist Tim McIlrath, and he was spot on, McIlrath an energetic
and all-action focus from the off, hopping on and off a set of 3 plinths at the
front of the stage, rabble-rousing and exhorting singalongs to their earnest,
sincere nu-millennial Offspring-like politico-punk. A stomping mosh emerged for
second number “Satellite” (yup, both RA and Get Up Kids had songs titled “Satellite”
early in their sets!), and the emo post-hardcore of “Ready To Fall” saw a
call-and response with the crowd. McIlrath was also very talkative, acknowledging
his job to get us warmed up and constantly praising the headliners, and also
delivering a stark, mid set “Swing Life Away” part-solo. A couple more slam
dance-inducing punky blasts including closer “Saviour”, and more thanks from
McIlrath to Jimmy (“I first saw them in 1997!”) rounded off an entertaining
main support set.
I took a not-so quick loo run (squeezing through folks to get there and back – yup, this was a busy one!), returning to find Logan had squeezed down to about half a dozen rows back from the stage. Good view! Darkness fell with a particularly abrupt thud as Jimmy Eat World took the stage unheralded at 9, lining up abreast in front of a bank of 12 lights. “What’s up everybody! We’re Jimmy Eat World,” greeted affable, black-clad vocalist Jim Adkins, the band then easing in with the militaristic drums of an understated “Clarity”. A more urgent “Blister” picked up the pace and elicited an early singalong after a frankly leaden and throwaway “Your New Aesthetic”, but it still felt the band were playing within themselves at this point, even “Lucky Denver Mint” (which followed Adkins enthusiastically announcing, “We’re celebrating the 25th Anniversary of our album “Bleed American”!”) pleasantly chugging but lacking oomph. This gig needed a proper jump-start, and boy, was it about to get one…
At the conclusion
of “Mint”, drummer Zach Lind abandoned his stage right kit as 2 sets of roadies
untethered the light banks and moved them offstage, Lind then reappearing on a
new kit on a drum riser at the back of the now fully-exposed stage. Straight
into the pounding drum intro and strident, slashing riffery of a brilliant “Bleed
American”, heralding the start of the album run-through… and the place went nuts,
a vigorous circle pit emerging next to us and completely subsuming my mosh-bound
son in a cloud of dust. The blistering “A Praise Chorus” unbelievably took it
up a few notches, this old bugger even braving the dust cloud to join the boisterous
yet welcoming pit, Adkins incredulously praising the crowd response with “Thank
you so much! When we were working on these songs we were proud of them, but had
no idea that anyone would care!”
“Bleed American” is undoubtedly Jimmy Eat World’s finest recorded moment, an absolute no-skip album of the highest quality and deserving of its’ status as not only their breakthrough and defining album, but a classic of the emo punk genre. That said, it is notably front-loaded with the more upbeat numbers, the power chord strum of “The Middle” and rolling backbeat drum-powered “Sweetness” all moshpit catnip early doors, before the later, more contemplative “Side 2” numbers, such as a poignant “Hear You Me”, which saw me finding my son in the pit and stand shoulder to shoulder singing along, for a real proud dad moment. The quiet/ loud dynamics of “Get It Faster” kicked up some more dust, before Adkins revealed, “we were sleeping on floors one minute [before “BA””], then “Top Of The Pops” the next!”, then the ringing chimes of the slow-burn “Cautioners” saw a number of female punters dance and twirl in the pit, one girl being held aloft by myself and a couple of beefy chaps like a ballerina in “Swan Lake”. A lovely moment.
The hushed,
introspective “My Sundown” brought the album to a close, the band taking a break before a 5-song encore featuring an incendiary
“Pain” and the herky jerky rhythm of a fantastic, soaring singalong “Big Casino”,
which joined “A Praise Chorus” and “Hear You Me” in my “top 3” favourite
numbers of the night. By this time, we’d extracted ourselves from the dust
cloud for more water and a watching brief near the back, so at the opening bars
of slow-burn set closer “23” we slowly headed off, through a boisterous city
centre (lots of footy fans already here for tomorrow’s Community Shield!) to
the car, driving home for just after midnight while Logan slept off his moshpit
efforts. Feeling battered and coughing up dust all the next day, but well worth
it for another brilliant Cardiff show (2 in succession!) from Jimmy Eat World, this
time doing absolute justice to a seminal album in “Bleed American”!
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