Francesca Tay
Action needs an audience.
And that was exactly what the alternative rockers Jimmy Eat World got, and a very fervent one at that.
The stomping and adrenaline-pumping 2,500 turnout – a melting pot of teenage indie rock & roll lovers and dressed-down after-work folks – were the source of high-pitched shrieks heard throughout the Hard Rock Café Hotel located at Resorts World Sentosa for a solid 90 minutes.
“No opening act”, declared the band on Twitter the night itself. “We start at 8pm sharp” and true to their word, many fans who streamed in late missed the chance of getting the first action.
From the get-go, the band from Arizona performed one of their hits ‘Bleed American’ and got the entire house burning up (literally as it was an outdoor venue and perspiring groupies were whamming into one another in a valiant effort to get closer to the stage).
Despite the spacious dance floor at The Coliseum, half the crowd huddled in front of the stage trying to get a clearer glimpse of their dearest ensemble. Familiar tunes such as their 4th single ‘A Praise Chorus’ was followed after, leading to a giant mosh party.
However, many appeared rather enlivened by the band’s older tunes in comparison to songs from their new album, as the crowd fell silent for a few moments during the band’s performance on ‘Coffee and Cigarettes’ and ‘My Best Theory’.
But props to the band for incorporating their entire discography into a mere 90 minutes show, gratifying audiences of all generations that have grew to love them.
By the time the quartet got around to playing another of their classic hits, ‘Pain’, you could see the crowd getting weary, sweaty and exuberated at the same time.
Regardless of the near burnout, the devoted fans still had their hands up in the air, some of them bearing posters that screamed out proposals such as “Tom, Marry me!” to “Jimmy, You Eat My World”
Of course, the band was perceptive enough to move on to slower ballads such as ‘23’, one of the songs other than ‘Pain’ that gave Futures, their fifth studio album, much more life and passion. Jim declared it a song request by all their supporters in Singapore and the entire house went ecstatic, singing along to the lyrics like they were on the back of their hands and going teary-eyed by the emotional pull of the words.
“You’ll sit alone forever, if you wait for the right time.
What are you hoping for?” – 23
As Jim nonchalantly strummed the guitar before taking a short break to greet the fans, the crowd hushed and took a timeout themselves, or rather a water break. He proceeded to rant about the weather in Singapore playfully, before repeating what was probably running through everyone’s minds, “Shut up and play? Okay, we’ll shut up and play!”
The rest of the night flew by as the band played out the gems of their entire discography, ‘Work’, ‘Hear You Me’ as well as ‘Get It Faster’, which proved to be well-received by the audience as they dove into a state of fanaticism, gyrating to the faster tunes and swaying to the down-tempo melodies.
Alas, the band called it a night with ‘Goodbye Sky Harbour’, hinting an agreement to an encore as they stopped the 15-minutes ballad midway. And then chants of “we want more” got roaring and within a minute, the four were back on stage.
The 2,500 enthusiasts cried as Jim churned out the words to their latest hit, “You’re always in my head, You’re just what I wanted”, with some fans crooning to their special ones bright-eyed with smiles on their faces.
Finally, the band whipped out popular nostalgic hits such as ‘The Middle’ that led to Bleed American’s success as a platinum album and ‘Sweetness’, that was well pure sweetness as you could feel the grime, sweat (partly ours) and amount of broken Fenders that defined the band’s rise to success.
The night ended on a bittersweet note. The only thing that would probably make the night more perfect would be lead vocalist Jim Adkins crowd surfing, which would be wishful thinking on my part.
Otherwise, it was ‘Heaven’.
Photo courtesy of: Ryan Chang for LAMC Productions
Acknowledgments to Universal Music Singapore