Jimmy Eat World / Bobby Cook

It’s hard to tell these days whether a band name relates to one man or the whole band. I’m all up for silly names (Get Cape....brilliant gimmick) but I believe if a band is listed as one person’s name, this should be the band name, or it should be, for example, Bobby Cook and the Sh*tHot Chefs or something. Yes, even for “stars” like Avril Lavigne and Madonna; acknowledge the backing band with credits in the title!

I will make an exception though for Bobby Cook. The guy carries this performance. Aye, his band are good, creating atmospheric guitars with grungy guitar mood swings, though the second guitarist seems to just back up the front-man’s playing. The keyboard player has skills in his hands but giving him the only other in-service microphone on stage was a bad idea; the lad is flat as a pancake, just dragging Cook’s vocals down during the harmonies.

This is soon forgotten however as Cook’s stand-alone vocals are damn good, adding a huge blanketing layer to the sea of present effects-laden guitars. After a noisy and grungy start the songs mellow out, with a few nods to Radiohead, Spiritualized and Ryan Adams. It would be interesting to see this guy performing alone; yeah his songs appear to need multi-instruments but here’s betting he can engage a crowd flying solo just as well.

Jimmy Eat World probably needed a larger venue for this show. Not much larger, just another thousand or so capacity. It’s rammed full of anticipation from mainly youngsters and the odd twenty-something. Singer Jim Adkins must be the sweatiest musician I have ever seen; and they haven’t started playing yet! The mind boggles...

Throwing a rock club favourite in first for good measure (no chance for warming up tonight); ‘Bleed American’ causes mayhem down the front, and the pretty sight of synchronised moshing. Adkins vocals appear to belong to someone else; the slightly high and boyish voice would be suited more to a boy band than a rock band, though this is emo at it’s rawest foundations.

Guitarist Tom Linton has rejoined the group after providing vocals for other bands for two years, namely “death metal” states Adkins, before adding “it’s good to have you back bro!” Adkins also announces that he prefers the UK because America is basically sh*te. Doesn’t say much for ‘em does it...

After George W. Bush’s drunken-style-but-without-the-drink dancing this week, I feel, looking at Adkins that Americans are not representing their dancing feet very well at the moment. Yeah they have the likes of Michael Jackson but he never tours. What we get is J.E.W. (did they mean to get that acronym?) and their swaying-like-your-dad dancing whilst producing emo music. With no back drop the focus is truly on the band members, and I can’t help but feel embarrassed for the guys.

Back to the music (not everything’s about appearances darling), and they sound really tight; effortlessly banging out songs that you recognise but didn’t realise who they were by. ‘Middle’; the last song before the encore, causes an upsurge in bodies trying to jump higher than the person next door, with fists raised to the ceiling in unison. There is only a short breather before they are back onstage to play ‘Hear You Me’ with Adkins on acoustic guitar, then it’s return to form with ‘Sweetness’.

I am surprised that I could sing along to so many songs, having not listened to any of their albums. Disappointingly there are too many “Oh, Oh, Oh's” in their lyrics, which could indicate either lack of song-writing skills (maybe that is too harsh) or their usage purely is for build-ups and sing-a-longs. After this performance, I like them more than loathe them so I will let them off.

Set list:

Bleed American
A Praise Chorus
Work
Lucky Denver Mint
Futures
Big Casino
Get It Faster
The Authority Song
Seventeen
Crush
Goodbye Sky Harbor
Electable
The Middle

Hear You Me
Kill
Sweetness
Pain

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.