In July of 2005, played their “last show ever” in Kansas City, MO. I was there at the Uptown Theater, singing along, dancing and sweating. If I had to write a review of that show at the time, 500 words could not contain my praise for the two-and-a-half-hour set. That was the last show the very influential Get Up kids would ever play; that is, until they decided to get back together, tour, and ultimately release a new full-length CD, last month’s “There Are Rules.”
Perhaps it’s unfair to review another Get Up Kids show from here on out, because it will always be overshadowed by its Coup de Grace older sibling, but I have to do it, so you can realize you didn’t miss out on too much this past weekend. TGUK (minus keyboardist Jame Dewes) played to a crowded on a snowy Saturday night in Denver, but it didn’t seem like the same band that played almost six years ago and about 600 miles east. It felt like a Get Up Kids cover band was squished on stage between the Marquis Theater’s two large speaker stacks. Now, a damn good Get Up Kids cover band mind you, but a cover band nonetheless.
Their set was laden with new material from the just-released “Rules.” Whenever front man Matt Pryor forced these tunes into the mix, they felt like intermissions, brief lulls that took about four minutes to be completed. Just as the audience really got energized from a cut off of “Something to Write Home About” or “Four Minute Mile,” the band would switch back to a new song, which lacked the energy from the crowd, and that was reflected in their demeanor as well.
It wasn’t until about 40 minutes into their 80 minute set that TGUK finally strung together multiple songs from their pre-2005 era. I can’t blame the strategy of playing newer stuff, that’s what the band needs to do. However, that’s not what the crowd of mid-to-late 20-somethings came to see. Every time Pryor prefaced a song with, “This one’s a really old one,” the loudest cheers of the night occurred, and the most energetic sing-a-longs followed.
New Jersey’s opened with an entertaining and energetic set that was filled with praise for Denver.
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Andrew Brand is a Denver-based writer and a regular contributor to Reverb.
Ryan Cutler is a Denver photographer and new contributor to Reverb.
