For many bands, a song or an album getting widespread airplay can lead to pressure to repeat the formula, resulting in successive albums that are just poor carbon copies of the original. In the case Jimmy Eat World’s, a string of popular songs was another step in the band’s growth and evolving sound.
Formed in Arizona in the early 1990s, Jimmy Eat World began playing shows and putting out records as a pop-punk band, citing other underground bands among its influences. After a couple upbeat and slightly sloppy 7” records, the band began to slow its sound and develop its songwriting skills. By the late ’90s, Jimmy Eat World was looming large in the post-hardcore scene, along with bands such as Jejune, Mineral and Sense Field, in what would be the precursor to early 2000s emo. Its album, “Clarity,” contains a sound distinctly of the early 2000s era.
However, with their following record, “Bleed American,” Jimmy Eat World would pull far away from post-hardcore circles and would find its songs, “Sweetness,” and “The Middle,” plastered all over national radio and MTV. Its alternative pop sound to this day is the perfect upbeat throwback to the early 2000s.
Whereas most bands would struggle to recreate the chart success of an album like “Bleed American,” Jimmy Eat World continued to evolve, its sound maturing and losing the pop sound in favor an all-out rock edge. The band’s most recent album, 2016’s “Integrity Blues,” is the sound of a band that has grown and melded as a cohesive unit, the sound retaining the hooks that the band has always captured in its songwriting, but pushing in directions not present in past recordings.
On Tuesday, Sept. 26, Jimmy Eat World will return to Cargo’s stage, drawing from the band’s nine albums and putting its evolution – now a quarter of a century and still counting – on display. Openers will be Japan’s Man With A Mission.
- Jimmy Eat World
Opener: Man With A Mission
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 26
Show: All ages
Where: Cargo Concert Hall
Tickets: $25
