The Get Up Kids

Underworld,

London

06/10/2011

Just as you never forget your first heartbreak, you never forget the songs that get you through it, either. And so it’s with a weird sense of sad nostalgia that the crowd are crammed into The Underworld tonight – because it’s highly likely, as teenagers, that The Get Up Kids soundtracked the break ups and break downs of their own teenage years. Now, 14 years after the release of their raw and cathartic debut album, ‘Four Minute Mile’ and 12 since their seminal (and recently reissued) sophomore effort, ‘Something To Write Home About’, came out, everyone in the room is older and wiser, but the impact and power of this band’s songs haven’t diminished in the slightest.

They clearly had an effect on support band Tellison, too – who are overjoyed to be sharing the stage with the

Kansas band. Playing only songs from their new album, ‘The Wages Of Fear’, the London-based act delicately balance emotion with intelligence, ‘Edith’, ‘Say Silence (Heaven & Earth)’ and ‘Freud Links The Teeth And The Heart’ all shimmering with a wistful nostalgia that’s the perfect antecedent to the headliners.

While their newest, fifth album, ‘There Are Rules’ – released earlier this year – marks a concerted change in sound for The Get Up Kids, live, its songs fit better with those that got people here into the band in the first place, and the likes of ‘Keith Case’ and ‘Rememorable’ are greeted with hefty applause. It’s nothing compared to the ecstatic response that old favourites get, however – in particular, ‘Don’t Hate Me’, ‘Action And Action’ and ‘Ten Minutes’ – which get the now-older crowd re-channeling the heart-wrenching angst of their past with searing conviction. Still it’s the one-two double punch of ‘Woodson’ and then ‘Shorty’ – both inciting visceral sing-alongs from the entire crowd – that is tonight’s highlight, as an almost tangible sense of urgent, unforgiving passion – a blend of hate and sorrow, loss and love, regret and relief – spreads throughout the room.

Whether playing old or new songs (or the cover of Blur’s ‘Girls & Boys’ that ends the encore), tonight shows that The Get Up Kids will always be relevant. Because you never forget your first heartbreak, and you never forget the songs that get you through it – even over a decade later. And there are always new hearts waiting to be broken.

Mischa Pearlman