Emo Kings Jimmy Eat World Raise The Roof With Sold Out Greatest Hits Show

LIVE REVIEW | JIMMY EAT WORLD | MANCHESTER VICTORIA WAREHOUSE 14/11/2024 by Craig Harston

Jimmy Eat World are rarely in the conversation when it comes to best live performances, which is inexplicable as they’ve been delivering phenomenal live shows for well over 20 years now. The emo veterans never disappoint in a live setting and this years tour is no different.

With no new material to promote for arguably the first time in their touring career (it’s been five years since last full-length ‘Surviving’, with the tour for that album delayed by the pandemic to 2022), Jimmy Eat World were able to unleash a ‘greatest hits’ package on what was their biggest headlining show in the UK (so far).

At this stage, it’s no secret that Jimmy Eat World’s most popular albums are Bleed American (2001) and Futures, which is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary this year, and both albums got the most love throughout the set. Kicking off with the double whammy of ‘Pain’ and ‘Just Tonight’, they got the crowd fully engaged in no time before following up with a fantastic rendition of ‘If You Don’t, Don’t’ and the classic single ‘Sweetness’. Slowing things down, ‘Sure And Certain’ was a nice surprise and was followed up by a fantastic extended version of ‘Your House’. Recognising that they have a wide age range in their fan base, the band played a few old and new songs next, including ‘Lucky Denver Mint, 2022 single ‘Something Loud’, a banging performance of ‘Big Casino’, a shortened version of ‘Goodbye Sky Harbor (another nice surprise) and a solo acoustic version of ‘555’ from frontman Jim Adkins. These were followed by a beautiful and heartfelt performance of ‘Hear You Me’.

‘Blister’ is an early Jimmy Eat World song that always goes down well live and Tom Linton absolutely nailed it as usual, getting a great response from the crowd. This was followed by a soaring performance of possibly the bands most emo song, ‘23’, another one that always goes down well live, before they, and the crowd, raised the roof with blistering performances of the classics ‘Bleed American’, ‘A Praise Chorus’ and their most popular song ‘The Middle’.

This would have been a great place to call it a night and everyone would have gone home happy, but Jimmy Eat World returned to the stage for a two song encore from ‘Futures’ – the introspective ‘Night Drive’ and the excellent ‘The World You Love’.

The band got great interaction from the crowd throughout and it’s likely many old emo hearts were full by the end of the night – including Jim Adkins, who seemed genuinely touched by the responses he got from the room during his thank you’s.

Here’s hoping Jimmy Eat World return to our shores again soon!