REVIEW: THE GET UP KIDS @ BIG NIGHT LIVE 10/3

Photo Credit: Dalton Paley

Review by Robin Sheng

The Get Up Kids performed at Boston’s Big Night Live venue as a part of its 25th-anniversary tour for its sophomore and the most well-known album, “Something to Write Home About,” on Oct. 3. While The Get Up Kids rose from the “Midwestern emo” movement in the 1990s, many fans of emo music in later decades cherish the band and “Something to Write Home About” in particular for their distinct influence on a more pop-oriented style of emo popular in the 2000s, representing a transitional phase within the emo genre. The show’s attendants were generationally diverse, ranging from forty-year-olds who presumably grew up with the band to teenagers who seemed younger than me, reflecting The Get Up Kids’ long-lasting influence on the emo genre across its various eras and styles.

The show opened with a set from Smoking Popes, whose music was unfortunately forgettable. Many of their performances left me baffled as I struggled to grasp onto bits of their songwriting that I could recall. Despite their mediocre songwriting, The Smoking Popes played with impressive energy, fulfilling their functions as the opener. As the Smoking Popes finished their set, the audience became noticeably more engaged in the concert than before.

By the time The Get Up Kids took the stage, the crowd was in full motion. As soon as the iconic opening guitar riff of “Holiday” reached the crowd, there was a distinct explosion of energy that stretched onto the furthest rows of the audience, complementing the band’s intense performance. “Action & Action,” another well-known song from the album, marked an even higher peak in crowd energy as some members of the audience started moshing. As the bouncy synthesizer melody pulsed throughout the performance, so did the attendants. While I am personally not into moshing in general, my friend who went to the concert with me found the moshing experience rather enjoyable, as her fellow moshers were generally kind to her, fitting the sincere and affective quality found in The Get Up Kids’ music. Both “Holiday” and “Action & Action” were performed by the band with sincere energy and impressive cohesion, demonstrating their maturity as a single unit of expression.

After a few songs, it became clear that The Get Up Kids are also experts at engaging with the crowd. During the slow and melancholy “Out of Reach,” the band encouraged the audience to sing along, a task that they embraced. The crowd’s singalongs were especially suitable for the song’s bittersweet emotions, which echoed throughout the venue for the song’s duration.

Nevertheless, one significant flaw of the concert was the vocal mixing, which became most apparent during “Ten Minutes.” Not only did the lead singer’s emotion-packed vocals sound oddly artificial due to the subpar mixing, but there were also moments where his vocals became buried by the crowd’s singalongs in the mix. Of course, the singalongs were instrumental to the enjoyable, warm atmosphere of the concert, and I would certainly prefer that over a crowd that didn’t engage with the show at all. Ideally, however, one should be able to feel the warmth of crowd singalongs while simultaneously hearing the lead singer’s voice clearly.

“I’m A Loner Dottie, A Rebel” was my favorite performance of the night by far, opening with an energetic and engulfing guitar riff accompanied by especially passionate drumming. Already a fantastic song itself, the live rendition made it sound fuller, more sincere, and even more evocative of the song’s emotional complexity. Moreover, the band sincerely reciprocated the crowd’s engagement throughout the concert, giving an appreciative speech to the audience before performing the album closer. The band cited the crowd’s generation diversity as constructive to the concert’s positive atmosphere and thanked the younger attendants for carrying the band’s legacy forward.

The Get Up Kids continued to play nine more songs from various other records. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear why “Something to Write Home About” was their most acclaimed album – these songs from their other albums are simply not as well written. One exception was “Walking on A Wire.” Featuring an angular guitar line and drumming reminiscent of Trip-hop, the performance evoked a colder and more anxious atmosphere that stood out from the rest of the songs. After a full album and several more songs of similar qualities, I found this change-up in atmosphere quite appreciable.

The show closed with a song from their debut album, “Don’t Hate Me”, in which its unique structure made it suitable as a closer. As the song moved from its energetic punk-ish first half to a mellower second half, the audience shifted from fervent moshing to casual swinging, ending the concert on an appropriate note. Indeed, as I found myself relaying my concert experience to my parents two days later, The Get Up Kids’ performance was truly something to write home about.