“If you’ve got $30, we’ll play you some old songs. And maybe you can buy a T-shirt!” Photos by Joe McCabe.
After a brief hiatus, indie-emo scions have reunited with their original lineup. During the mid-to-late ’90’s, the band constantly spurned major labels, opting to stay with indie imprint Vagrant for most of their existence. They famously held a 10-year anniversary show in their hometown of Lawrence, Kan., in 2005 and charged what they called “first year prices” — which meant five bucks a head. For what was (at the time) their final show later that year, $13 got you in the door when a $40 ticket would have still easily sold out the venue. If you wanted a souvenir T-shirt it would have set you back a measly $12.
Flash forward five plus years to Tuesday night’s show: Evidence at the that made it seem like the comeback (in support of a recently re-release of their most popular record “Something to Write Home About,” now packaged with a DVD) might have been swayed by a single factor… T-shirts now had pieces of masking tape that had “$20” scribbled on it.
During the break between their set and encore, most of the audience chanted” Get-Up-Kids! Get-Up-Kids!,” but a few mocked the ticket prices with “$30-ticket! $30-ticket!.”
At least the show itself was vintage Get Up Kids. Frontman Matt Pryor stated, “It feels like it’s 1999,” which drew applause from the crowd and prompted another missive: “Wow, I’ve never heard anyone cheer a year before.” That, predictably, garnered an even louder reaction from an audience anxious to see the band that got a lot of them through awkward high school years.
Even though it was the first night of their cross-country reunion tour, it didn’t feel like the band had been out of practice for almost a half decade. Sans a keyboard malfunction before the set even began, everything clicked and the show had a notably nostalgic feel. There were occasional speeches from Pryor in which he portrayed a more mature, “You-kids-better-stay-safe-out-there” persona.
Other than that, I’m with Pryor. It did feel like 1999 all over again.
Australian-based openers punctuated their set with the hypnotic cover of Alphaville’s “Forever Young” — a song that feels like it’s ripe to be made the soundtrack to an MTV or FOX drama about coming-of-age teens and early 20-somethings. I just looked it up to see if it hasn’t already, and apparently the producers to “The O.C.” and other shows were way ahead of me…
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Andrew Brand is a Denver-based writer and a regular contributor to Reverb.
Joe McCabe is a Denver photographer and a regular contributor to Reverb. Check out his .
