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Jimmy Eat World Crashes The National This Tuesday

Ash Griffith | November 18, 2019

Topics: All The Way, Bleed American, emo pop, Integrity Blues, Jimmy Eat World, pop punk, Pronoun, Surviving, The National

Veterans of the early-00s emo/pop-punk scene Jimmy Eat World come to The National in support of their 10th album, which further proves that they’ve got what it takes to survive any flash-in-the-pan musical trend.

Dust off your Converse and grab your favorite hoodie, Richmonders. Pop-punk outfit Jimmy Eat World is making a pit stop in town this Tuesday at The National as part of their Surviving Tour and XL102’s Friendsgiving Show Series.

Originally based in Mesa, Arizona, Jimmy Eat World — Jim Adkins on lead guitar and vocals, Zach Lind on drums, Tom Linton on rhythm guitar, and Rick Burch on bass — originally got its kitschy name from a drawing. After a fight between Linton’s younger brothers, Jim and Ed, Ed drew a picture of Jim shoving the world in his mouth. The rest, as they say, is history.

Jimmy Eat World is undeniably best known for their fourth album, the certified-platinum Bleed American, which featured hits of your middle school youth like “The Middle” and “Sweetness.” If you thought that album was self-titled, you’re not losing your mind — it was actually known as Jimmy Eat World for seven years. This was due to a title change prompted by the September 11 attacks, which occurred seven weeks after its release.

The Surviving Tour will no doubt touch on a few of these jams of yore, but the tour is actually in support of their tenth studio record, Surviving, which was released on October 18th and features leadoff single “All The Way.”

The band’s previous album was Integrity Blues, their ninth, which was released in 2016 and featured the single “Get Right.” That album was the first released after bandleader and chief songwriter Jim Adkins sought treatment for alcohol abuse, and that action fueled the songs he wrote for Integrity Blues.

“Instead of writing about a problem, I wanted to write about a solution,” Adkins said of Integrity Blues in a 2016 statement. “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.”

Now six years sober, on Surviving Adkins is taking another look at the things that make him, and so many other people, feel trapped in their own unhappiness. “I think we’re much more likely to try to rationalize and justify our unhappiness instead of looking at what might be behind that and [taking] action,” he told Alternative Press. “Like I say in one of the songs, it’s the difference between surviving and really living.”

This kind of introspection and continued growth, not just musically but emotionally, is what makes Jimmy Eat World endure while many other pop-punk bands tend to scrape off or fade away like the bumper stickers we put on our cars a decade ago. They’ve grown and gotten better, aging like the finest wine. On Surviving, Jimmy Eat World proves that they’re here to stay. 

Jimmy Eat World will be performing on Tuesday, November 19 at The National, with special guests Pronoun. Doors open at 6:30 pm, and the show starts at 7:30. Tickets are $29.50 in advance, and can be bought at the box office or at thenationalva.com.

Indie/Emo Pop Band Downhaul On Latest Release, ‘Where We Started’

Daniel Brickhouse | March 13, 2018

Topics: Downhaul, emo pop, indie, rva music, strange matter

Since moving from North Carolina, indie/emo pop band Downhaul has been carving out a name for themselves in the local music scene this last year. But vocalist/guitarist Gordon Phillips and bassist Patrick Davis played together and collaborated on songs for years before forming an official band.

“We grew up in Virginia together, and in the summer of 2016 he {Phillips} was writing songs and sending them to me and I’d give my feedback on them,” said Davis. “It was interesting though because they were all acoustic demos.”

Once Davis returned to the United States, the duo decided to move to North Carolina where they began playing regular gigs, and soon after, Downhaul slowly started to take shape.

“We played in our first show January of 2017, and we honestly got really lucky. We hit this guy up on Bandcamp who had North Carolina tags, and he ended up hooking us up with this cool house venue,” Davis said. “ It ended up being a cool show and from that, we met other bands who we were able to make great connections with.”

Rounding out their lineup is guitarist Robbie Ludvigsen, and drummer Joshua Duncan, whom they picked up after moving back in Richmond. And even though the local group just started last year, Downhaul hit the ground running to get the word out about their music.

“Last year was extremely busy for us, we ended up playing at almost 60 shows last year,” Phillips said. “Even this year we’re already about to push double digits with shows already. We even have some shows planned all the way ahead to August as well.”

And just last month, Downhaul released a new EP, Where We Started. The four-track record was produced by Kris Hilbert in Greensboro, North Carolina and is a follow-up to the band’s EP About Leaving, which dropped last year in April. Prior to that, the band released their debut EP, Little Whim, in August 2016. 


For Phillips, the new album was all about nostalgia, reminiscing on their time spent in North Carolina, and finally making their way back to their old stomping grounds.  “These four songs are about moving back home to Virginia and our time in North Carolina. It’s about how it was living there briefly, the job I had in NC was only for a year, so it was kind of weird because we knew we were only going to be there for a year,” said Phillips. “It reminded me of college, knowing you’re going to be leaving anyway, so we compiled all the feelings we had while living there and what it felt like coming home all into one EP.”

Relatable and catchy, this album, much like their previous release, has something for everyone with its upbeat jangly indie guitar sounds, albeit brief. But the angsty emo vibe hasn’t died with this band and you can still feel it on this album, which makes it that much more appealing.

Since releasing their EP Feb. 27 at Strange Matter, the boys have not made any plans for hitting the road, but have scheduled a few local shows for you to check out including one on Barton Avenue on March 24 with Richmond pop-punk band House&Home, fellow pop-punk Hungover out of Orlando, Nashville indie group Father Mountain, and local emo band, two cars. You can also catch Downhaul April 11 at The Canal Club with Carousel Kings and Cold Front.

Photo By: Chad Glenn

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

 

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