The Last Stand of The Get Up Kids

Often I have people trying to make me explain my fascination with music. It’s usually in response to having seen my CD collection. I have more Jeff Buckley CDs than many people have CDs in general and they really want to understand how that can be. I usually rattle off something about the vitality of music and the essence of art. I think from now on I’ll just describe the concert I attended last night, the last stand of The Get Up Kids.

Honestly, I would never have heard of The Get Up Kids unless I had moved out here and happened to work with the brother of the rhythm section. That is no way in saying that they did not have popular acclaim, they’ve sold about a half million records over their career, which is much more than any of the alt-country bands that I listen to on a regular basis. They were lumped into alternately into the punk scene (think Green Day) or the emo scene (think, well, emo bands). I still feel that both of those are unfair comparisons because I simply view them as an alt rock. A really strong, alt rock band. They wouldn’t normally be on my radar but I’m glad that I’ve had a chance to listen to them over the past year or so.

Last night was their farewell concert. After ten years as a band they’ve decided to move on to the next step in their careers. It seems to be one of the most amicable and reasonable breakups I’ve seen. Typically, a band breaks up because someone wants a solo career, or there are factions forming within the band, or simply everyone hates the lead singer. The Get Up Kids are ending their career for reasons like, “The lead singer is a dad now and wants to spend more time with his family.” But before they called it quits they decided to have one last party in Kansas City and what a night.

You knew it was going to be a big night in the afternoon. While driving around yesterday I drove by the theater and saw people waiting in line at two in the afternoon for a show where the doors were opening at seven. When I got there at seven the line to get in was three blocks long. And it wasn’t just local kids. You started talking to people in line and started hearing things like “I’m from Texas” or “I drove all the way from New York” or “We flew in from Sydney, Australia.” I’m serious, people came from Sydney to be a part of this. That is as close to being on the other side of the world as is possible. That is the level of passion that was shown last night.

Everything seemed to work last night. Veda opened and showed that they are going to be a band you’ll hear from in the future. They’re like a twenty-first version of the Blake Babies and I mean that as a huge compliment. But they were just a prelude to the main event as evidenced by the fact that they started packing up their gear before the feedback from their last song had subsided. Lucero put on a strong, if uneventful, set. Even the set up for The Get Up Kids was cool with London Calling playing in the background. It ended up with the cool effect of the current coming up with “Death or Glory” fading away in the background. I’ll give credit to any band who will play the only band that matters before they take the stage. Which they did to Europe’s “The Final Countdown”, which just made sure that everyone knew that tonight was meant to be a celebration.

Which it was and that is what makes it special. Most bands don’t get to end their careers as friends or with a huge supportive crowd. They either end like Uncle Tupelo (whose last set list quite possibly was written by lawyers) or they end up staying past their welcome and ending their run in some third rate bar in Boise. Last night, The Get Up Kids were five guys who were great friends and loved playing together and wanted to go out in style. Everything was high energy and it didn’t matter that a ton of technical issues were popping up (like the fact that entire banks of monitors were failing), they were going to play until they collapsed. And the crowd was with them the entire time, surging to the stage, crowd surfing, singing along to every song, and just enjoying the night.

For me, it was a thrill to be there but I also knew that it had to be a rush for the band, who are just a bunch of guys from Kansas City. To know that people traveled from around the world to hear you play one last time, to have the crowd chanting “The Get Up Kids” before the encore, is there anything else that one could want in the world? I get a thrill knowing that occasionally people I don’t know read the blog and I don’t imagine that anyone is having their life fundamentally changed by it. I can’t imagine what it must have felt like onstage last night. To have that one moment that you can point to whenever someone asks, “What have you accomplished with your life?”

I find those moments in music more than anywhere else. It’s why I stroll through records stores every chance I get, searching for something new that will connect with me and lead me on another path. It’s best when you find a band like The Get Up Kids, they might not sell out arenas but they have a loyal and devoted fanbase filled with people who are connected to the music. It creates a sense of community that you just typically don’t encounter and you can’t help but feel that the world is a better place after being a part of it.

When the Gear Daddies broke up, someone wrote the following “Other music has meant more to me on headier levels; other bands have defined me more. But for as long as I live I will never, ever love a band the way I loved the Gear Daddies.” For much of the crowd last night, the same could be said of The Get Up Kids. They may not have changed the face of popular music, they might not have popped up on TRL, but for a group of people they were the band they would cross the world to see. They will be missed.

The five random CDs of the week
1) Sting “Ten Summoner’s Tales”
2) The Insiders “Not For Sale”
3) The Handsome Family “In the Air”
4) Lucinda Williams “World Without Tears”
5) The Frames “The Roads Outgrown”