The Get Up Kids
Sunday, March 13, 2011
The Bottleneck
"Hello...home. It's good to be back," spoke Matt Pryor into the microphone before
the band launched into "Tithe," the opening track from There are Rules, the band's first record in six years. No one ever expected the Get Up Kids to get back together, so the people packed into the Bottleneck were feeling a little extra excitement. Crowd members -- who had either grown up listening to the Get Up Kids or were in the process of growing up with the Get Up Kids -- were more than ready to welcome the band home from their extended national tour.
On second thought, maybe it's not that weird that the Get Up Kids got back together. Unlike lesser bands that, once they find what works, exploit every last drop of success out of their sound, the Get Up Kids matured rather gracefully as they grew up, got married, had kids, etc. Yet when they immediately followed up "Tithe" with the opening chords of "Action & Action," the song didn't sound 10 years old at all. Perhaps it was the nostalgia at work, but their old songs have aged particularly well. There's a little timelessness in those songs about young love and heartache that one could probably apply to any relationship they'd ever had that had gone sour. The Get Up Kids are like comfort food for Kansas Citians, so there's probably some bias there, but the amount of hate the Get Up Kids seem to attract from the joyless tastemakers of the Internet seems unjust, given that these songs are so goddamned good.
The Get Up Kids didn't sound old, tired or like a band going through the motions, even though Rob Pope still seems like he's too cool to be in the band now that he plays bass for the much more critically beloved group Spoon (and seems to have adopted the über-cool aloof swagger of his Spoon bandmate Britt Daniel). Surprisingly, the set only consisted of six tracks from There Are Rules, while the rest of the set was an excellent mix of old singles, deep cuts and fan favorites. The crowd was respectful during the new tunes, but their enthusiasm for the classics was damn near jarring. Not unexpected, but it's rare to be surrounded by an audience so willing to sing along to songs you love at the top of their lungs.
There's a wonderful communal feeling that the Get Up Kids brought with them. There's something about them being a nationally beloved band that makes us KC kids proud. The Bottleneck wasn't stuffed to the gills, but it was just the right kind of crowd with just the right amount of fist pumping and cheering. The only real gripe I could come up with was the clumsy, momentum-killing "Overdue," but mostly because they'd come off the teenage heartache one-two punch of "Mass Pike" and "Love Me," and I don't think any of the 20- and 30-somethings were prepared to stop acting like lovesick teenagers. The set's other slow jams, "Campfire Kansas" and "I'll Catch You," fared much better and added just the right amount of tenderness to the string of angsty jams.
They're the city's favorite sons without a doubt, despite being nearly a decade out of their heyday (and despite the gutsy bomb that was On a Wire). Outsiders tend to dwell on the whole emo thing, holding the Get Up Kids responsible for the rash of sappy dreck that flooded the airwaves with whiny tales of unrequited love in the early '00s. After releasing Something to Write Home About to much aplomb, the band was poised to take the emo crown and rule the tear-flooded lands but chose to make an album they wanted to make instead of rehashing the last one. And though countless bands rode their influence to success, most of them have fizzled out or crashed and burned. Yet the Get Up Kids are still putting out new albums and playing the sort of live shows that leave you with a sore throat and a radioactive glow when you leave the venue. As long as the Get Up Kids keep growing up, they're always going to be the most welcome band in Kansas City.
Critical Bias: I grew up in Johnson County, and Jim Suptic's mom was my seventh-grade math teacher.
Critic's Notebook: On openers Miniature Tigers: "Overall they're über-clean, inoffensive indie pop with a slight folk tint fit for a rom-com or a car commercial, but the singer's poncho seems like he thinks they're on a psychedelic bent or something."
Overheard in the Crowd: "I'm starting to think the poncho's getting on my nerves."
Set List:
Tithe
Action & Action
Regent's Court
I'm a Loner Dottie, A Rebel
Automatic
Mass Pike
Love Me
Overdue
Shatter Your Lungs
Red Letter Day
Woodson
Pararelevant
Shorty
Close to Home
Holy Roman
Campfire Kansas
Rememorable
Don't Hate Me
Walking on a Wire
Encore
Beer for Breakfast (Replacements cover)
Holiday
I'll Catch You
Ten Minutes
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