We’re back for another installment of our travel series CF Goes To… and this time we set our sights to the rocky shores of Seattle, Washington. We snagged tickets to Death Cab For Cutie’s hometown kickoff show celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Plans with the intent of deepening our understanding and connection to the band’s major label debut and of course, answering a critical, pressing question: Is Ben Gibbard still the hottest front man in indie rock?
But first, a detour.
If you haven’t previously read our journey to San Fransisco for Death Cab For Cutie’s/The Postal Service’s 25th Anniversary celebrating Transatlanticism & Give Up, head on over to begin now.
A Show Before We Go
It’s Wednesday July 23rd and I’m wandering a trail near Budweiser Stage in Toronto. In no time at all, I’ll make my way into line to see New Found Glory, Jimmy Eat World and The Offspring hit the stage for the Supercharged tour. I’m anxious not just for the show to start, but because as soon as I get home I’ll have to finish packing my suitcase for my next big music-driven adventure.
It’s nice when my favourite bands come to Toronto because hell, is it ever convenient. But if I’m being honest I have been growing a little bored with the same-old, same-old here. I’ve seen more shows at Budweiser Stage (or The Molson Ampitheatre before it) than I can remember. Quite literally – at a number of those I was entirely too drunk to remember a damn thing save for the odd photo or video that proves I was there at least in body for a period of time.
I splurged a bit on this ticket. I shouldn’t be spending what I am on it – after all, I’ve seen Jimmy Eat World a ton of times and I have seen The Offspring before, too. But in all the shows I have seen here, I’ve never been in the GA Pit and I had the funny feeling when I was on Ticketmaster the day of the onsale that this might be the last show I see here for a very long time.
It was $240. I shudder at the thought of it. $240 for a couple punk bands? Pop-punk bands? It seems irrational and against the culture just thinking about it. Who the hell can afford that? I guess I should be able to given that I’m in my mid 30’s, but it’s been a rough lifetime of ongoing financial woes in a city that continues to outbid me.
I charged it to a credit card with the immature air of, “Fuck, who cares, I’ll deal with it later”. It’s not lost on me that this attitude has deefinitely contrrbuted to my lifetime of ongoing financial woes.
Outside the venue I hop into the AMEX Priority Line. I made sure to get an AMEX card a little while ago for the sole purpose of concert pre-sales because it continues to be a challenge just to get the opportunity to buy tickets now with how long the online queue’s are, and now I’m starting to use the little perks that come with that, like these nice short lines, but I’m a little perturbed that our society continues to evolve into these niche premium markets that require us to opt into things just to have a semi-half decent experience. Beside me is a couple of guys setting up a Skip The Dishes priority line – for that one, younjust have to opt-in to the Premium Skip the Dishes subscription. It’s all a little ridiculous.
The gate agents don’t check for any proof of your AMEX of course, they just want to get people in the venue, so the process is quick and easy. I’m ushered over to the far side to get my GA wristband and then I join the other early eager beavers inside.
Budweiser Stage has changed a lot since I first started coming to it. It always feels more like a small festival experience to me now what with all the different food vendors and booths set-up on the exterior.
I scope out the situation for getting into the pit and run into someone I work with at the Rogers Center. Most of the people I work with there also work at a variety of other venues in Toronto like this one and it’s always kind of nice to see them in another environment, especially when I’m running solo at a gig and they’re down to chat for a bit.
I decide to check out the new AMEX Lounge afterwards to see what that experience is all about. There they do make a point to verify you have a card before you’re admitted, but once I’m in it’s, well – it’s just a bar. I suppose if I was going with friends and they wanted to sit and hang before the show starts it’d be a good option, but I personally have no real reason to be there. I will say though, there is a nice little dock you can go sit on and have a meal in some comfortable lounge chairs and that’s kind of a cool add-on. I sit down in one of the chair’s for only a minute or so before a server comes over and I feel awkwardly out of place, not needing a drink and not wanting to spend the high prices on the menu offered, so I take off back to the normal concourse area to scope out the merch (where I remind myself that I spent $240 on this ticket and can probably do without new tees) and head into the Pit to get a good spot right near the stage.
New Found Glory
It’s my usual spot, second row just off to center left. I am a creature of habit when the universe allows.
I’m really here for Jimmy Eat World. I know they’ll play their usual set list list of radio hits and it’ll be over before I feel I’ve got my fix, but I almost felt like I needed to redeem my previous Jimmy Eat World show experience. I was running late for that one, a stone’s throw away on Echo Beach where they opened for Manchester Orchestra and ended up quite a bit further back than I wanted to be. I normally wouldn’t mind, but with this band I’ve reached a point where it almost doesn’t feel worth it to see them unless I can be up close to the stage; It completely changes the show for me.
A woman beside me pulls out a bag of gummy bears and starts offering them to the women she’s been speaking with, some I assume have just met and others they came with. Edibles.
“I’ll have just half of one now and then see how it goes,” a woman says before taking a bite.
I smirk to myself about it all. We’re all still just teenagers in this pit, but now we’re all 30-45 years old.
New Found Glory are opening the show tonight. I used to listen to them a fair bit in my early teens; the Sticks and Stones and Catalyst records are part of my old CD collection – I was a bit more fond of Catalyst, personally, but I can’t deny the catchiness of tracks like My Friends Over You. It feels overdue, but I’m excited to hear that one live for the first time.
New Found Glory hit the stage and I’m surprised the venue is reasonably full for it. Toronto concert-goers have a tendency to skip out on openers and pop up just in time for the headliner but that doesn’t seem to be the case today. Perhaps the good weather we’ve had has helped with that.
Admittedly a couple songs take me a second for my brain to recall them. It’s been a little while for me and New Found Glory, but once they settle in, I’m reminded what I liked about these songs. Lead singer Jordan Pundik certainly is looking older than when I was first introduced to him and there’s an intensity about him I wasn’t expecting, but he’s full of energy and putting on a great performance. I almost don’t recognise bassist Ian Grushka until I notice the animated and at times goofy facial expressions he’s making; I appreciate that guys like this still really put on their stage costumes when they’re performing these throw-backs – after all, there are people in these crowds that have never actually seen you before, so while it’s old news for them to play Catalyst live, it’s still new for a lot of us.
The band is missing a couple original members tonight, like guitarist Chad Gilbert who the band explains was undergoing treatments for his cancer. In place are members of Motion City Soundtrack and Four Year Strong – also bands I absolutely adore so it’s nice to see them there, too. We send our well wishes into the atmosphere for Chad and the show goes on.
The set whizzes by quickly, but not without Jordan jumping into the pit to allow us to sing along with him into the mic. I’m on the other side of that event and not compelled enough to run over, but I love that he still does this and take a lot of joy in watching other fans participate in it all; a very cool moment and I develop a new found appreciation for New Found Glory some 20+ years after first hearing them.
Jimmy Eat World
A guy beside me asks if I can try to hold his place as others are starting to shuffle into the pit. Like me and what I can assume of a couple others I notice in the crowd he’s come alone. One of the perils of being solo at the gig is if you don’t make friends quick, you sort of condemn yourself to be stuck in place if you don’t want to lose your spot, so you better have been smart about using the restroom or grabbing your drink (and then nursing it!) before hand.
Of course it’s not a problem. He offers me a drink as thanks, but I decline. A nice offer, but not necessary.
I notice a timer on stage as the band’s road crew moves a couple things in place; 45 minutes. It’ll be a short one for Jimmy Eat World tonight, too, although not that much shorter than they normally play anyway. Hell, maybe they only ever play 45 minutes. I can’t remember now if they’ve ever gone much longer.
Nevertheless, I’m always excited to see them. I hold out hope that they’ll play some deep cuts, tracks that never really got any radio play but are great songs in their own right, but I know it’s unlikely.
As the band hops on stage I’m happy that from where I’m standing today I don’t feel the disconnect I felt when I was far back at Echo Beach. There is a big part of me that never loses the wonder and magic of being close to my musical idols – I think I chase that more these days than I do the show itself.
I bounce and belt along to all the songs like I do when I’m at home. My eyes always dart around to watch what everyone’s doing; I love watching Tom and Jim play guitar. I can’t see Zach well today, hidden behind his cymbals, but Rick is right in front of me and that’s always fun for me, too.
Sometimes Rick is super amped up on stage, other times he’s much more reserved. Today he’s reserved and possibly a little annoyed. I keep catching glimpses of him fussing with his bass, bending at the neck as though he’s sensing the intonation or something is off kilter today. From where I’m standing, I can’t really tell.
Nobody else seems to notice either.
As usual Jim is really doing the heavy lifting keeping the crowd engaged and excited. He does some crowd work and acknlowedges the fans at every level of the ampitheatre, noting that the lawns would be where he’d usually be at a gig, too. He’s always come across as being very down-to-Earth to me and in more recent years seems to be embracing sharing more of this with us when he’s performing.
I’m having too much fun to notice much other crowd otherwise, although every once in a while I notice the guy beside me that I held the spot for headbanging along and getting into it as much as me, so I just sort of assume everyone else is doing the same. As far as I’m concerned though, it may as well just be me and the band in these moments.
I catch a side-eye from Jim and feel justified in my choice to arrive early and get myself near the stage. It only lasts a second but that’ll propell me through the rest of the gig.
I end up being wrong about them not playing any older tracks as they acknlowedge that the next one they’ll play is celebrating a big anniversary. It’s Call It In The Air from the Static Prevails record and I’m stoked.
Static Prevails arguably has the most unique sound out of all of Jimmy Eat World’s records. It’s before the band really seemed to settle into their rhythm and sound, but carries all the initial characteristics you find littered throughout everything from Clarity to Futures, Surviving and all that’s inbetween. It’s a little less refined and polished, but made with clear intentions that still holds up today. It’s a great treat to hear it live, so hopefully the band continues to throw tracks like this back into the set list from time to time.
At some point in the last 20 minutes or so of the set, I notice the woman beside me behaving oddly. She’s kind of had her head down and looked a little out of it, almost like she’s nodding in and out and trying to keep herself awake. It’s the woman who accepted the edible earlier and had only taken half of it. She must have taken some more since then and something wasn’t jiving right, or something. The woman behind her (her friend? Not sure), the one that had handed out the edibles, noticed her now too and checked in. She started to fan her and hold her a bit to keep her steady and I was a little concerned. Maybe she was just too hot and needed some water or some air out away from the front of the stage. I checked in and asked if she was alright, but her friend (or whoever it was) kind of just said she was fine. After watching for a bit longer I wasn’t convinced and moved to get the attention of the security guard in front of us. At the very least she could probably use a bottle of water and I knew they had some nearby, but she’d be better off exiting the pit at this point.
I guess her friend didn’t want to make it a bigger deal than it was because she told me not to bother the security guard about it and took her away from the stage instead. I get a little uneasy about these things – the only thing more important than enjoying a show is ensuring everyone there with you is safe and well. I’m sure she’s alright, but I didn’t see them again for the rest of the night. Hopefully they still got to enjoy the rest of the show.
The set came to a close with The Middle and I’m now sweaty and content. My only real complaint I ever had about these guys is that they don’t play longer and they stick to their normal set list script, it always kind of feels to me a little like they’re not just selling us life-time fans short, but themselves, too.
And then I remind myself that not everyone in the crowd has seen Jimmy Eat World live before, just as I hadn’t seen New Found Glory, and although this may have been the 7-thousanth time they’ve played The Middle, for someone in that crowd tonight it might’ve been the first time and maybe it just ignited their passion for rock and guitar like it did for me when I was young.
The bigger crime of this band? Giving us Something Loud and Place Your Debts and then… nothing? Is there an album coming out soon? I don’t mean to rush anyone, but these guys haven’t missed a beat yet and I’m feeling a little antsy to hear what they’ve been cooking up.
The Offspring
“That was great!” I say to the guy beside me, who somewhere along the way I learned was named Scott. He agrees, of course. I take a look around the venue, now even fuller, and decide it’s a good time to take a brief walk and grab a soda pop.
“I might not be able to save your spot,” Scott says, noting all the newcomers to the pit.
“That’s alright! I might not even try to get back up here, it’s all good!”
Sure, it’d be cool to be up front for The Offspring, but I don’t feel like I need to be today.
I head out back towards the merch. Am I sure I don’t need a new Jimmy Eat World tee? Maybe an Offspring tee? I don’t have one of those.
I hear someone yell my name. Unexpected.
I turn to see my old friend and former bandmate Ed. “Hey!” I haven’t seen him in years.
We both marvel at how long its been and how great it is to run into each other here. We catch up and Ed asks if I’ve kept in touch with a couple people we both used to know; he has done a better job of that than I have, but it’s nice to be reminded that I used to have some semblance of a social life. We chat about music and talk a bit about Sum 41 (I’m wearing their shirt today) before he asks if I’m still working on my own original music as well. I am, I tell him, though no band these days. He tells me he was playing with some guys, but someone moved out to the East coast so it’s basically defunct now as far as his involvement with it goes. He mentions he’d love to jam with me again some time and I’m excited to say I’d love to have him on board. Only, I’m also planning on moving soon – to the West coast.
It’s funny, but I’ve spent the last few years facing the grueling task of finding band mates to perform my projects live with and it just hasn’t panned out. I was even open to joining other bands and other projects because I know I can’t simply convince someone to be intersted in what I’m doing – you either dig it or you don’t and I get that. But musicians ghost you as quickly as they introduce themselves, or a variety of other factors make it seemingly impossible to get anyone to commit to any sort of regular practice schedule. It’s been frustrating, but it’s also a big part of the reason I’ve been able to develop my skills on other instruments, so it’s not all bad I guess.
Now that I’ve made the decision to move and put a few things in place to make it happen, I’m starting to hear more from people who want to jam or get involved in what I’m doing. Even employers I’ve been working for have made a point to reach out and acknowledge how much they’ve enjoyed me on their teams and they’re excited to keep me on board for the fall and winter. While nice to hear, it feels like my life is constantly at odds with itself. Where were all these people and opportunities when I was willing and able to commit myself wholly to them? For years?
When I made the decision to stay in Toronto and work and try to finness my way back into the music scene here, even getting simple shows was a great challenge unlike any I’d had when I was younger. It’s like the key to getting opportunities here is not being available for them.
Anyway, it was great to see Ed. We decided we’d try to meet up again after I return from my trip to chat some more. Ed was always one of those good dudes you love having in the band because he’s got such a great attitude and just enjoys to play – no ego, just passion for the art. These types of musicians seem harder and harder to come by all the time.
I grabbed my pop and headed back to the Pit; The Offpsring were getting on stage and I didn’t want to miss any of it.
I’m actually hugely influenced by The Offspring. A lot of these bands found their way to me through MuchMusic with their fun music videos and in particular The Offspring were a band that were quick to grab my attention back in the day. Dexter Holland has one of the coolest voices in punk rock as far as I’m concerned; instantly recognizable and really sets him apart from similar-sounding bands, and the band’s music itself jumps in and out of punk and into other genres the same way other veteran heroes like The Clash do, making for a well varied and exciting discography overall. And I love Noodles. Great guitar player, always a joy to watch.
The Pit was obviously much fuller now and I didn’t feel like pushing my way through to get back to where I was. It was full, but not too crowded if you stood sort of midway and it gave a great view of the whole stage from there, so I found a spot where I wasn’t blocked by too many tall heads and took in the show.
If you’ve never had a chance to see The Offspring live, you’re missing out. They put on a great show. Dexter still has great stage presence and sounds just like the records (hard to believe he’s 59!) and Noodles is such a fun dude to listen to, both when he plays and when he addresses the audience.
They played for just under 2 hours or so – all the hits and then some without missing a beat. I had to look up the drummer after the show because he was incredible to watch and I couldn’t help but notice how young the guy looked. Brandon Pertzborn has actually toured with a lot of big name acts – Marilyn Manson, Suicidal Tendencies, Black Flag – and yep, he’s younger than me! Four years younger. Quite a feat to be playing with The Offspring, I couldn’t imagine – of course he’s clearly put in a ton of work to get there and is an incredible talent.
There was a very cool moment in the show where Dexter and the band stopped to acknowledge the very recent loss of Ozzy Osbourne. His influence is obvious when you looked around this crowd, many of whom donning Black Sabbath or Ozzy tees to tonights show. Noodles riffed a couple tracks as he does and then they announced a special guest performer to join them in a tribute.
And who could be more fitting than our very own Dave Brownsound Baksh from Sum 41.
Some bands really know how to choose a great surprise guest and The Offspring hit it out of the park with this one. Not only is he a hometown hero, but he’s arguably our most famous metal-esque guitar export. I was stoked to see him.
The tribute was awesome as it was touching, felt authentic and the crowd loved every second of it. A major highlight of the night and one I won’t soon forget, I’m sure.
Outside of the music itself, I have to mention the great theatrics during the show. From superb lighting programming to pyro, giant skeletons, beach balls, confetti blasts and the big blimp that cruised through the crowd, The Offspring kept us all engaged and attentive. It’s not the type of stage show a lot of think we’ll ever play when we’re putting our first bands together in garages and basements, but dammit if it isn’t an effective way to keep the audience eagerly watching for more.
Spirits were high all around as the band took their final bow and I shuffled my way out of the Pit to trek back to a random lot I found on Dufferin street where my car was parked. Traffic in Toronto is an absolute mess, but fortunately I escaped the core relatively quickly and got home pretty fast. Just as well; It’s time to finish packing. I have to leave for the airport in just a couple hours for the first leg of my trip: Vancouver.
This is Part 1 in an ongoing series. Come back soon for Part 2 where I debrief my 4 day stint in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Crooked Forest 