Say what you want about emo music and the associated connotations, but it’s one “genre” (legitimate or not) which is close to my heart, simply because I just get it. With that said, I was never one of those kids who dressed up like a half goth hybrid and parted his hair in such a way. If there’s one thing about me, I never let the music I listen to dictate the way I dress or look.

Wait, why has this post suddenly become about me.

On Wednesday, I saw an emo band which has been around since the mid-90s, clearly earlier than the emo bands which came out in the Noughties.

The venue was in Camden which is where 80% of gigs happen anyway so is almost always a given, but it was one which I’ve never been to before. I love looking forward to new venues. At least, I can say I’ve been there.

Underworld was the venue for this evening which was under a pub called “World’s End” which I found really amusing.

The venue, as the name suggests, was underground and dark. It had the typical underground smell and feel. The actual stage area was pretty small with the stage no more than 2 feet above the floor. There were these two massive beams right in the middle of the floor area which sort of ruined things.

Support for the evening was a band who I thought was Said Mike but apparently is now called Straight Lines. I am familiar with them since I saw them support Lights! Action! back in March of 2009 when they where still known as Said Mike. Due to the album sampler they gave out back then, two songs stood out during their set, Antics and Perfect Mistakes. I have to say their sound has improved quite a bit from the last time I saw them.

As usual, as soon as the support left the stage, people started filling up the stage area and the place got packed real quick. There were also those anxious fans who squeezed right in front.

The Get Up Kids then came on stage. I’ve never paid attention to their looks before but they did seem quite a bit older than what you’d expect from an “emo” band. Then again, they have been around since 1995 which is totally amazing.

I can hardly remember anything from the setlist and searching online has led to nothing. As far as I remember, they started off just a bit slow and after a good 4-5 songs, kicked off with Holiday which threw everyone into a frenzy. This was then double up’d by Valentine.

This is completely terrible, I can’t remember which songs exactly they played this evening as there were a lot spanning all their albums and a few new songs.

It was amazing singing along to the songs I knew which turned out to be just quite a few but it was still a very enjoyable evening.

They did close the evening with Walking On A Wire which was superb.

Apologies for a lame write up of this gig, I simply can’t remember much of the setlist from this evening. Blame it on thinking about something else throughout the evening.