\jeff{krimmel}

Throwin’ Bows at Jimmy Eat World

I’m slow in getting this written, and Heather already documented much of it on her blog, but I’ll give it a whirl. This past Saturday, Caltech had Jimmy Eat World come to campus and put on a live concert. Admission was free, and Burger Continental started the festivities with a complimentary barbeque. The opening act, Jade Shader, went on at 6:30pm, followed by Jimmy Eat World at 7:30pm.

I enjoyed Jade Shader. The front man was pretty funny and did a good job interacting with the crowd between songs. He introduced one of the last songs with the line, “This is a song about pirates”, which was received with quite a roar from the Caltech community, as one would expect. Someone said the lead singer looked a lot like Jack Black. I agree. A fair opening.

Then Jimmy Eat World came on. Wow. They put on a really good live show. The front man provides the energy; the others just stand (or sit, in the case of the drummer) and play their instruments. I only have one Jimmy Eat World album, Bleed American, and they played several songs from it. Several of the songs from other albums I recognized, though, likely from radio play. They played on a temporary stage erected near the student center. The lights and audio were very nice, especially for an outdoor venue. With it being dark outside, and the lights pointed in various directions all across the stage, the crowd could see the sweat fly from the front man’s hair when he banged his head. He was into it.

As Heather said, a pretty healthy mosh pit got started, with us near the stage getting pressed into the guard rails more than once. After taking half an hour’s worth or so of a beating, I decided to land a couple of elbows myself. The best way to keep people off of you at a concert? Wait until someone near you exposes a rib, and jab an elbow right into it. (But make sure you’re bigger than they are.) It clears some space around you. I’m not proud of it, but if your knees where as shoddy as mine are, you would be looking for ways to avoid taking hits too.

A good time was had, and I enthusiastically look forward to having this happen again.