Live review: The Get Up Kids @ the Marquis Theater
By Andrew Brand, Lisa Kennedy, Lisa Kennedy, Lisa Kennedy, Lisa Kennedy, Lisa Kennedy, Lisa Kennedy, Lisa Kennedy, Lisa Kennedy, Lisa Kennedy and Lisa Kennedy | September 18th, 2009 | No Comments »
“If you’ve got $30, we’ll play you some old songs. And maybe you can buy a T-shirt!” Photos by Joe McCabe.
After a brief hiatus, indie-emo scions the Get Up Kids have reunited with their original lineup. During the mid-to-late ’90′s, the band constantly spurned major labels, opting to stay with indie imprint Vagrant for most of their existence. They famously held a 10-year anniversary show in their hometown of Lawrence, Kan., in 2005 and charged what they called “first year prices” — which meant five bucks a head. For what was (at the time) their final show later that year, $13 got you in the door when a $40 ticket would have still easily sold out the venue. If you wanted a souvenir T-shirt it would have set you back a measly $12.
Flash forward five plus years to Tuesday night’s show: Evidence at the Marquis Theater that made it seem like the comeback (in support of a recently re-release of their most popular record “Something to Write Home About,” now packaged with a DVD) might have been swayed by a single factor… T-shirts now had pieces of masking tape that had “$20″ scribbled on it.
During the break between their set and encore, most of the audience chanted” Get-Up-Kids! Get-Up-Kids!,” but a few mocked the ticket prices with “$30-ticket! $30-ticket!.”
At least the show itself was vintage Get Up Kids. Frontman Matt Pryor stated, “It feels like it’s 1999,” which drew applause from the crowd and prompted another missive: “Wow, I’ve never heard anyone cheer a year before.” That, predictably, garnered an even louder reaction from an audience anxious to see the band that got a lot of them through awkward high school years.
Even though it was the first night of their cross-country reunion tour, it didn’t feel like the band had been out of practice for almost a half decade. Sans a keyboard malfunction before the set even began, everything clicked and the show had a notably nostalgic feel. There were occasional speeches from Pryor in which he portrayed a more mature, “You-kids-better-stay-safe-out-there” persona.
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