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Clarity cover image provided by All Access Magazine.
with Reubens Accomplice
House of Blues
Sold Out
In the uneasy times of today's economic turmoil, musicians have come across a guaranteed recession-proof concept: play the album that made you famous. The bands of today and tomorrow may toil in obscurity for years on end, but those formerly-obscure bands that made their best album decades ago can hit the jackpot with a quick jaunt across America on the heels of an entire LP. What started as a little experiment by All Tomorrow's Parties has become a venerable cash cow for certain acts. While some of it is all in good fun (Mission of Burma's recent Vs. and Signals, Calls, and Marches shows come to mind), a handful of tours reek of nostalgia (Built To Spill's Perfect From Now On tour).
However, Jimmy Eat World present a curious case; the group drops by the House of Blues tonight to play its 1999 emo opus Clarity as part of a ten-date tour for the album's ten-year anniversary. The tour is hardly what one would consider to be a get-rich-quick scheme: when Clarity was quietly released by Capitol, its failure to put up the kind of numbers the record company was hoping for was reason enough for the band to get the can.
Today, Jimmy Eat World's best-known album would have to be the breakthrough, multi-platinum hit, Jimmy Eat World (also known as Bleed American), featuring the once-unavoidable "The Middle." Still, Clarity holds a special place in the hearts of many fans of J.E.W. and pop music. The album has been hailed as a cult and indie classic, is one of a few go-to records that cemented an aural aesthetic known as emo, and is a genuinely deft and moving piece of music from start to finish. No wonder a proposal for Continuum's 33 1/3 book series about Clarity is in the running for potential-future publication (sadly, Bostonist's proposal for The Promise Ring's Nothing Feels Good did not make the shortlist).
For those lucky enough to score a ticket to the sold out show tonight, it should be quite a treat, especially if Jimmy Eat World decide to perform Clarity closer "Goodbye Sky Harbor" in its 16-minute entirety.
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A live review (including setlists and photos) of Jimmy Eat World's "Clarity x 10 Tour" with Reubens Accomplice at Terminal 5 in New York City on February 23, 2009:
http://intunemusiconline.com/2009/03/24/jimmy-eat-world-reubens-accomplice-nyc-223/