I have a confession to make. It’s not something I’m proud of, necessarily, but that’s just the nature of confessions I suppose. In spite of being an individual of a certain age (45) who has been going to punk rock shows since the mid-1990s and was a fan of the Vagrant Records catalog from pretty much the beginning (or at least since that Boxer record) and who doesn’t see the word “emo” as a particularly negative word (and knows it existed before whenever Gen Z thinks it started), I had never seen The Get Up Kids live until 2024. Matt Pryor solo? Sure. New Amsterdams? Yup. Even James Dewees/Reggie And The Full Effect. But for whatever reason, never The Get Up Kids. I’ve long-since had my elder (geriatric?!) emo card revoked, but as of this week, I can officially apply for reinstatement, because, at long last, I finally saw The Get Up Kids!
The Kansas City-based quintet brought their Something To Write Home About 25th-anniversary tour to Boston for a raucous, sold-oud soiree at Big Night Live, a venue I’ve spent many words kvetching about on these here pages. And while many of my complaints are still valid (it’s too weirdly shaped and oversized and chaotically lit and limited-in-sight-lines for a punk rock show), I have to say that it was by far the best show I’ve seen at that venue. When I say it was sold out, I mean it was sold out sold out; each and every nook and cranny of the six (I think) different sitting/standing levels was occupied. A merch line snaked around to the back of the building for what seemed like hours before and after TGUK’s set. (Side note: a sold-out Get Up Kids show at Big Night Live and a sold-out Sabrina Carpenter show at the adjacent TD Garden made for about as enjoyable a people-watching experience as you’ll find).
From the opening notes of set – and STWHA – opener “Holiday,” the crowd kicked into full-throated singalong mode and never really let up for the duration of the evening. As is par for the proverbial course in album anniversary shows, the band ripped through a main set that consisted of Something To Write Home About from start to finish, essentially uninterrupted. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how well some of the mid/late 90s Vagrant records hold up, particularly by comparison, and Something To Write Home About is a prime example, its dozen songs still containing a sort of gravity and earnestness that have allowed it to age gracefully in the quarter century since its release. The call-and-response section of “The Company Dime” is of particular interest now that those of us who were around twenty when the album came out have two-and-a-half decades of day job doldrums under our belts.
After a brief intermission, the band returned to the stage with fervor, kicking things off with the acoustic-led “Campfire Kansas” and rousing renditions of “One Year Later” and “Stay Gold, Ponyboy.” It’s probably hard on an album anniversary tour to put together a larger, career-spanning setlist for the rest of your allotted stage time, and that was certainly true on this night, as only Four Minute Mile, On A Wire and Red Letter Day (the latter of which also turned 25 this year) were represented in the nine post Something… tracks that closed the show, meaning the “newest” song played was still more than two decades old. That didn’t seem to matter much to the jam-packed crowd, who sang along like it was the twentieth century through Mass Pike and the confetti cannon-accompanied “Don’t Hate Me” which brought the night to a fitting conclusion.
The almighty Smoking Popes kicked off the evening’s festivities, and don’t worry, I’m not THAT much of a square – I’ve seen the Popes a bunch of times over the years. The touring lineup has changed a little bit: two-thirds of the Brothers Caterer have stepped back from tour life in recent years, so golden voiced frontman Josh and longtime drummer Mike Felumlee are joined by Reuben Baird on bass and Telethon‘s Jack Sibilski on guitar. The result is a live band that absolutely shreds. Not that Matt and Eli Caterer wouldn’t be up to the task by any stretch, but 2024 has found the current touring Popes iteration has logged more shows in a year than any Popes lineup since the Clinton Administration, so they’re about as locked in as it gets. Their set kicked off with “Midnight Moon,” the song that also kicks off Born To Quit, an album that’s also celebrating an anniversary this year, albeit a thirtieth anniversary. (Yes, that’s right…Born To Quit is thirty. More on that in a couple days, and also, better make sure your AARP benefits are up to date, gang.) BTQ and Destination Failure tracks made up the bulk of the band’s dozen-song set. Sadly, personal favorite Into The Agony was represented only by “Amanda, My Love,” but them’s the breaks when you’re in an opening slot I suppose. At least we got “Let’s Hear It For Love” and “Madison” and a brand new song called “Golden Moment” – more on that one to come! Caterer’s voice – arguably the best in punk rock over the last few decades – still goes down as smooth as ever, and it was fun watching he and Sibilski take turns shredding lead guitar riffs.
The Get Up Kids / Smoking Popes nationwide adventure winds itself down tonight in Chicago. TGUK will be at the Best Friends Forever Fest in Vegas this weekend, while the Popes will take some well-deserved time off the road for a little bit but stay tuned for a few fun announcements on that front, and check out more photos from the show below!
