The Get Up Kids at the Troubadour

The Get Up Kids were one of the few bands I had any interest in seeing at the Bamboozle Left show in Irvine along with Deftones and Thrice. My weekend was already set in motion as I had scheduled Ratatat at the Hollywood Palladium on Saturday and Puscifer at Club Nokia on Sunday.

Luckily, I managed to get a ticket to see The Get Up Kids at the Troubadour prior to their show at Bamboozle on Friday night. Unfortunately, no professional SLR cameras were allowed inside the venue and my point and shoot digital camera had a dead battery since it has been months since I last used it.

I will freely admit to liking the Get Up Kids. Even though most bands and fans like their album Something To Write Home About, I actually preferred their later albums On A Wire and Guilt Show. I also really enjoy The New Amsterdams which is Matt Pryor (Vocals/Guitars) doing more acoustic based songs.

The other caveat of The Get Up Kids is that Rob Pope(Bass) has done pretty well for himself by playing bass in Spoon (redemption of my indie cred). It would be interesting to see if The Get Up Kids are going to make a full fledged reunion happen or if these were a few one-off dates.

I was pretty tired from my late night with Autolux the night before so it was actually nice to take in a full concert and not worry about photos. It was hard not to crack a smile when the Get Up Kids came out with the slashing chords of "Holiday". Ten years ago, I am sure a pogo pit would have ensued but most of their fans seemed happy to take it all in.

The evening had The Get Up Kids visiting a broad range of their catalog but I particularly enjoyed hearing James Dewees add keyboards to all their older songs which really strengthened their live show. I also should note that James was one of the first musicians I saw to use an Apple laptop and keyboard controller in a live setting right when programs like Reason hit the market.

Matt Pryor was playing his Gretsch guitar while Jim Suptic (Guitars) had a Fender Telecaster and a Vox AC-30 amp. The Get Up Kids were very well rehearsed and they seemed to be enjoying themselves on stage with occasional high-fives and smiles throughout the night. Of course, songs like "Valentine" and "Red Letter Day" had the crowd singing along word for word which reminded me of Dashboard Confessional.

Things really started to pick up when they played a slew of my favorite songs in a row starting with Jim singing lead vocals on "Campfire Kansas" and "Ten Minutes". "On A Wire" was reworked from the recorded version and had a slower tempo.

A rousing ovation brought the Get Up Kids for an extended encore featuring some of their more popular songs. It was surprising to hear their cover of The Cure's "Close To Me". "Man Of Conviction" had a false start but was later pulled off without missing a beat. They capped their set with "I'll Catch You" to finish their close to two hour set. I was most impressed how well their later material held up and didn't sound dated. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for The Get Up Kids.

The Get Up Kids setlist at the Troubadour (4/3/09)
"Holiday"
"The One You Want"
"No Love"
"Valentine"
"Up On The Roof"
"Never Be Alone"
"Woodson"
"Red Letter Day"
"Out of Reach"
"Martyr Me"
"Close to Home"
"Coming Clean"
"Campfire Kansas"
"Holy Roman"
"I'm A Loner Dottie, A Rebel"
"Ten Minutes"
"Walking On A Wire"

Encore:
"Close To Me"
"Man Of Conviction"
"Mass Pike"
"My Apology"
"Don't Hate Me"
"I'll Catch You"