I don’t really think a massive review is needed here. Anyone who knows me (so that’s about three of you reading this…) will know just how much I owe this band. The Get Up Kids were the soundtrack to my teenage years and have provided me with music and memories that will go hand in hand forever. The recent announcement of their impending split probably affected me more than any other band going their separate ways. Don’t get me wrong, tears weren’t shed (I’m not a fucking emo kid, jeez…), but I was quietly gutted I’d not hear any more new material. It’s therefore kind of fitting the band bow out with a live record, which also unofficially probably adds up to a greatest hits record – after all, there’s not one single bad song here.
Sure, the tracklisting does miss off some fan favourites, but the 18 that did make the cut are fantastic. There’s a real mix of old and new songs too – ‘Woodson’, ‘Shorty’ and ‘Don’t hate Me’ will satisfy the old-skool, the double attack of ‘Holiday’ and ‘Action and Action‘ will have those ‘Something To Write Home About’ fans singing for hours, while the vastly underated ‘Campfire Kansas’ and ‘Martyr Me’ bring up the new-skool. It doesn’t matter which era you’re from, The Get Up Kids have always been a great band. Sure, they matured and developed as a band, but even ‘On A Wire’ was an amazing record – even if it sounded as far removed from their early guise as could be.
‘Live At Grenada Theatre’ is polished and the crowd interaction certainly touched up, but what the hell. The Get Up Kids deserve your attention. They always have. Any band that writes songs like ‘Mass Pike’, tracks that can masquerade as pop songs yet still appeal to even the most ardent of scenesters, demands credit. Perhaps they didn’t make it as ‘big’ as they probably should have been, but for me they will always be the band that inspired me to contribute to this very website and attempt to do something constructive, rather than sit back and moan like the majority. They may be no more, but for me, The Get Up Kids will live on. To quote the band themselves, “all good things have endings.” The Get Up Kids were certainly a good thing.
www.thegetupkids.com
Vagrant
Paul