It seems that every few months a new armada of aspiring US rock bands crosses the Atlantic sheltering under the latest convenient categorisation to steal the headlines and the pocket money of the nation's youth. We've had the "I'm having a bad day, someone's gonna pay" assault of nu metal and the "I'm having a bad day but looking kinda good in a scruffy stylee" of New York chic.
Now it's the turn of the "I'm having a bad day but I deserve it…you wouldn't understand" crew otherwise known as the emo-rockers. Not a new phenomenon but recently elevated to new heights in a post-September 11, neo-plastic pop world.
Tonight the current darlings of this 'movement' Jimmy Eat World are here to promote their no frills, emotionally charged rock. Pop Idol Darius would be the first to "feel the love in the room" directed at what appears to be four very average looking blokes. At their head stands Jim Adkins - hardly your stereotypical rock frontman - with a tortured expression that suggests he may just burst into tears any second.
Like Weezer's Rivers Cuomo, Adkins, for all his many attributes (voice, songwriting, sensible footwear) seems a reluctant leader in keeping with the lo-fi aura of the band. Not that this is a bad thing. The absence of bluff and confrontation, of DJ, dodgy raps and sharp suits and swagger makes a pleasant change.
With little to offer visually, rock is Jimmy Eat World's speciality and they don't disappoint. On paper their strange confections of 80s pop, stabbing Pixies guitars and more hooks than an abattoir sounds a trifle bizarre but it works. The crowd lap up the newer songs with glee. 'Salt Sweat Sugar', 'A Praise Chorus' and 'If You Don't Don't' are intense bolts of electricity. Every lyric of 'Getting Faster' and 'The Authority Song' are yelled back at Adkins word perfect and the double encore of 'Sweetness' and 'The Middle' leave the crowd happily battered by the short but bruising set.
Risk-free but far from dull, Jimmy Eat World are probably only destined to be everyone's second favourite band but you could do a lot worse than let them take a bite out of your world.
