Interview
Stage Times
Jimmy Eat World’s worst gig was also their best
Zach Lind of Jimmy Eat World looks back on the band’s gig history ahead of their upcoming 25th anniversary shows
Jimmy Eat World have had a rollercoaster of a career. They started as teenagers in Mesa, Arizona, playing DIY shows and cobbling together tours across the US, before piquing the interest of Capitol Records. They released two albums, 1996’s Static Prevails and their 1999 magnum opus Clarity, with that label, before being dropped for their lack of commercial success. It could have been curtains for them. Instead, they made Bleed American, the absolutely massive album full of hard-rocking bangers and power-pop anthems that made them one of the era’s biggest alternative bands.
They’ve continued to release great albums ever since, and they’re now an independent band once again. “I think we’ve always tried to have that [independent] mindset regardless of our circumstances,” says drummer Zach Lind, speaking over Zoom from his home in Phoenix, Arizona. “We always kinda felt like the more you have that mindset the better, even if you are with a major label or something like that. It’s dumb to assume that other people out there are thinking about your best interests and working as hard as you’re willing to work.”
The band are working on new music as we speak, but they’re also getting ready for a huge tour in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Bleed American. That’ll take them for a three-date run of the UK, stopping at Halifax’s Piece Hall, Cardiff Castle, and London’s Gunnersbury Park, which will be some of the biggest UK headline shows they’ve done to date. “When we play in the UK, there’s a different energy that we don’t see anywhere else,” Lind says. “From the very beginning when we started playing shows there, people just came out and supported us. When we leave the UK, we feel like we’ve been lifted up a little bit.”
Below, Lind talks to us about some of the most unforgettable moments of Jimmy Eat World’s career – the good, the bad and the weird.
The gig that made you want to play music
I think I wanted to play music before I even went to a concert. But one of the concerts that was really inspiring to me was when some friends and I drove down to Tucson to see Sunny Day Real Estate open up for Shudder To Think. And it’s awesome became Sunny Day is gonna be playing with us on a few dates in the US, so we’re excited about that. But yeah, that left a big imprint on me, and was definitely an inspiring show. Both bands are incredible.
Was there a moment with Jimmy Eat World where you were starting to be spoken about in the same sentences as bands that you love, that came before you?
I don’t know. I don’t think we let ourselves really think about that too much. For instance, Sunny Day is gonna be opening up for us in Denver, and Girls Against Boys are gonna be opening up for us in New York. But those bands, in our mind, forever will be above us. Just because more people come to your show doesn’t mean that you’re better or you have a bigger impact. And so I think we always kind of wanna look at and pay respect to those bands, because those were the bands that inspired us. We wouldn’t be doing what we were doing if we didn’t have those bands fueling us when we were younger. And we still listen to them to this day. We listen to a pre-show mix every show, and Sunny Day is on that, Girls Against Boys is on that, there’s a lot of great bands that we listened to when we were younger. We don’t really let ourselves think of it in terms of, oh, we’re joining them, ’cause they’re always gonna be up there for us.
Photo by Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images
The first
The first gig we ever played was in the back storeroom of like, a secondhand thrift shop, like a clothing store, in our hometown of Mesa. It was on Valentines Day. I’m sure we sucked but it was kinda fun for that to be our first show. A lot of friends from high school were there.
When you guys started, did you feel straight away that you were onto something?
Personally, I felt really excited. I had played in a few other bands before, and they were cool, but this one felt different to me. When [vocalists/guitarists] Jim [Adkins] and Tom [Linton] came over to the house for the first time and me, Jim and Tom played together, it was like, ‘Okay, we got something here, I think this is a good start.’
The biggest
We did two shows in a row at Milton Keynes Bowl opening up for Green Day, and we also did Milton Keynes with Foo Fighters. That’s pretty big. And we opened up for Green Day at Giants Stadium in New York City.
Do you feel the energy and excitement of playing a big show, or is sitting behind your drums kind of the same anywhere?
No, it’s definitely like, ‘Holy shit, there’s a lot of people out there.’ Especially when we did Giants Stadium. I’m a big sports fan, so when I was a kid I loved the New York Giants. I think there was like 75,000 people there. It felt like, okay, holy shit, we’re in Giants Stadium, this is crazy. So there’s always that kind of element, especially if the venue is interesting or cool.
It’s interesting, because we came from playing small clubs, or art spaces or DIY venues. And when you’re playing those, it’s also scary because you can actually look everyone in the face when you’re playing. When you play a huge venue like Milton Keynes or some big stadium or something like that, it’s sort of like you’re interacting with a singular mass of people. But there is a definite energy when there’s so many people. I feel like I’m probably trying to rush the songs and playing too fast because I’m so amped.
The smallest
I mean, we’ve done shows back in the day, many times, where we would pull up and play in a club on tour, and the only person that was watching was the sound man. I would say that’s probably the smallest. When we’re playing on stage and there might be some regulars at the bar that could give a shit about what we’re doing, and the sound guy is there and no one else is there. That’s happened a few times.
I think it’s good to have moments like that. In the music business, there’s gonna be a lot of moments that are humbling. And I think in a lot of ways, those days shaped us. Especially back then, before the internet, before smartphones, when you’re a kid and you’re in a band, you’re playing for people but there’s not really a lot to compare yourself to. And now today, it probably is really hard and gets you in your head like, ‘Oh, we’re not as big as them’. But I remember back then we didn’t really care that much. In our mind we were like, hey, we’re playing music, we’re on the road, we’re having fun. And people aren’t just gonna show up, so you have to go figure out a way to earn that. So it was good for us, but I think it’s probably harder today for bands.
The weirdest
In Logan, Utah, we did a gig where we played in a ravine with a generator providing power for all the instruments. We had connected with a local band through a zine. We got their name and we reached out to them. They were like, ‘Yeah, come on, we’ll set up a show.’ So we went out there and there was no venue, it was just some dudes who set up a show out in, like, a campsite. It was like, literally out in nature. I think [the crowd was] mostly the band and some other bands and their friends. I don’t think a lot of our fans came out. It was back in the day where we were just trying to get our name in front of people’s faces. It was very strange, but it was kind of interesting.
The worst
I think the worst gig, when I think back, was a really important gig. It was in San Antonio, Texas. And that same night, the local basketball team in San Antonio was playing in the playoffs. And that’s the only professional sports team that San Antonio has, so the whole city is focused on the basketball game. We’re playing downtown at this shitty club, and hardly anyone came. I think it was on the Damage tour [in 2013] – so it was well into our career. And I remember thinking to myself that night, man, we gotta figure some shit out here. If we’re gonna be on this trajectory, then we need to reassess things. And so it was kind of like a shitty moment, but I feel like it fueled a response from us that was like okay, we have to be honest with ourselves and figure out a way forward. Maybe thinking a little bit more ambitiously in a creative sense. From that point on, I remember thinking we need to raise the bar.
I think ever since then, the band has really been building. We’ve been more intentional about the choices we make, why we do things. And then when we do decide to do something, we wanna do it at a level that the fans deserve. We wanna give back to our fans, and not just half-ass it. So I think that was a shitty gig, but it kinda led to rethinking some things.
I suppose when you’ve been a band for so long, you’ve got to make sure you’re not falling into complacency.
Yeah. It’s easy to take your eye off the ball sometimes. And it’s not that you mean to, it’s not that you want to, but sometimes shit goes on where you don’t have the capacity to invest and be intentional. That’s very much how we feel about making a new album – just because it’s been six years since we released an album, we can’t just do it to do it. It has to be done the right way, with an intention and an effort that’s necessary. And if it takes a little bit longer then that’s okay, we’re willing to live with that.
Photo by Venla Shalin/Redferns
The best
My favourite gig that we’ve ever played was at Brixton Academy. It was the first show we played in London after Covid and it was the loudest crowd we’ve ever had. I couldn’t hear my bandmates, I couldn’t hear anything else going on, all I could hear was the crowd singing. It was insane. It was one of those moments where we really felt connected to the London fans and the people who came out to that. It was really, really, really cool.
Coming to the UK over the years, have you seen it get bigger and bigger?
Yeah. I mean, after that we did Alexandra Palace and that sold out. And so every time we come back, I just feel like there’s this awesome wave of support that we get from the UK fans. The [Gunnersbury Park] show we’re doing in London is one of the biggest headlining shows we’ve ever done. So it’s pretty cool to have that connection with the UK fans. And not only them showing up and being there, but the way that they participate in the show, the way that they sing along. It’s just unmatched, anywhere we go.
Photo credit: Jimi Giannatti
