If you’re gonna write an album as good as ‘Bleed American’ (surely a future classic?) then you owe it to the world tour the shit out of it. Accordingly, it’s been nonstop for Jimmy Eat World for awhile now and tonight marks their final UK show. Brixton is sold out and anticipation is high, thanks in no part to the success of lead single ‘Bleed American’ being on heavy rotation on Kerrang TV here.Opening band The Promise Ring have, much like our headline act, recently released an album that places them firmly into the alternative rock world as opposed to “emo”. The transition out of that particular pond is arguably over for Jimmy but it’s not been quite as plain sailing for these guys. Their latest record Wood/Water is solid and lead track Stop Playing Guitar sounds great tonight but the band struggle to captivate the notoriously fickle London crowd. Their hour long 14 track set was overkill and did them no favours. Keep it short and sweet when you are opening lads.Unsurprisingly Jimmy Eat World are positively frenetic tonight. Opening with Praise Chorus they catch the crowd off guard by playing Bleed American second instead of closing with as many may have guessed. As it happens the tactic serves them well being both a thank you to the new fans for whom are here because of it and also a way of reassuring the older fans that they are still the band they fell in love with. You can spot the old school fans easily, they are the ones singing along to No Sensitivity, a personal highlight, but make no mistake… The Authority song sounded huge tonight and closing numbers Sweetness and The Middle both tied for loudest sing along of the night. A nearly perfect set only let down by it’s brevity, 12 songs just isn’t enough – but it’s Jimmys world right now and we just live in it. Catch them in August at Reading and Leeds.
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Jimmy Eat World in London
