Concert review: 30 years later, Jimmy Eat World can still light a fire under a crowd
As the sun set on Sunday at Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre, rock band Jimmy Eat World was whipping up lyrically induced angst with zeal — but their fans weren’t quite matching that enthusiasm. They almost seemed tame in comparison.
So lead vocalist Jim Adkins tried to loosen them up a little.
“The cool police are slowly leaving,” Adkins announced after his band performed its fourth song of the evening, 2022 hit “Something Loud.”
“You guys can let go at anytime. They’re not going to bust you,” he added, laughing.
From that point on, the crowd at Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre really came alive.
Over the course of a 70-minute set that seemed to fly by, Adkins, rhythm guitarist Tom Linton, bassist Rick Burch and drummer Zach Lind captivated the audience and owned the stage, as if they had done this thousands of times before.
And they literally have. ”The Amplified Echoes Tour” stop in Charlotte marks more than 1,300 concerts for the Arizona-native band since its formation 30 years ago. Dressed in all black, like true veterans of the emo scene, the group transported the audience back in time with high-energy anthems like “The Middle” and “Pain.”
Much of the audience grew up in that 2000s post-grunge era alongside Jimmy Eat World. Many proudly claimed that title, starting the unprompted clapping that led the band into the disdainful emo hit “Let It Happen.” Others in the crowd — such as the man wearing a shirt that read “Tattoos Are Stupid” while exposing a sleeves of ink on both arms — embraced that brutally ironic, passive-aggressive teenage phase even more authoritatively, with consistent head-banging throughout the show.
A select group of super-fans even passed that energy on to their kin, including the young boy who was rocking out in the back of the pit, wearing blue sound-protection headphones, and sitting on his mother’s shoulders to get a clear view of the band over those standing in front of him.
Adkins jumped around with his guitar during “Sweetness,” exuding a youthful vigor reminiscent of the band’s formation during their teenage years back in 1993. The 17-song performance never lacked in energy, even during the slow acoustic track “Hear You Me.”
Adkins, Linton and Burch all cycled through an impressive collection of guitars — at least three each — the red, teal and tan instruments often providing the only splashes of color on stage (with the exception of the occasional light display).
Yet it was the way they played those eye-catching guitars that highlighted how devoted Jimmy Eat World is to their craft.
From Adkins’ electrifying guitar solo leading into “23” to the riff-off between Adkins and Linton during “Criminal Energy,” the crowd could see the guys really leaning into and getting lost in the music. It was as if they forgot they were on stage for a brief moment and transported back to Lind’s garage in Mesa, Arizona — home of the high-school jam sessions that started it all.
And, in the end, it was concert worthy of a 30-year celebration.
Jimmy Eat World’s setlist
1. “Pain”
2. “Just Tonight”
3. “Sweetness”
4. “Something Loud”
5. “For Me This Is Heaven”
6. “Kill”
7. “Let It Happen”
8. “555”
9. “Lucky Denver Mint”
10. “Criminal Energy”
11. “Big Casino”
12. “A Praise Chorus”
13. “Hear You Me”
14. “Work”
15. “23”
16. “Bleed American”
17. “The Middle”