Twenty-three years later, Jimmy Eat World still has the rock band swagger of the early '90s.
Riding high off the release of their ninth studio album Integrity Blues last October, the group who hail from Mesa, Arizona took to the iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles to perform songs off their new record, as well as hits from their past releases Friday evening.
The collective -- Jim Adkins, Tom Linton, Zach Lind, and Rick Burch -- kicked off their hour-long set with something familiar and brought the crowd back to 2001 with their hit “Sweetness,” before moving forward with their current single “Sure and Certain."
The band kept the fans on a head-bopping frenzy with a succession of powerhouse performances adorned with impassioned electric guitar strums, from "2004's "Pain" and 2007's "Big Casino," to their newer releases "Get Right," "You Are Free," and the moody track, "Pass the Baby."
Before they delivered their mega-hit single "Middle" from 2001, host of the evening, ALT 98.7's Harms, spoke to Adkins about their thoughts on Taylor Swift, who partnered with Apple Music for an ad last April in which she rocks out to the classic alternative jam. Following the debut of Swift's "Middle" performance, the song rose 298 percent in sales and 48 percent in U.S. streams, and led to a surprise return on Billboard's Hot Rock Songs chart at No. 16.
"We got a heads up that she was doing a tour where she wrote lyrics on her arms and I think a deep album track of ours; she tatted herself up in the show," said Adkins, recalling the exact moment the band knew she was a true fan. "She tatted herself up on her show and we found out about it that way. She's like an actual fan. She knows lyrics to songs that aren't singles."
Albeit the album title track "Integrity Blues" was noticeably absent from the band's iHeartRadio LIVE setlist, Adkins said the track serves as the center piece for the record: "'Integrity Blues,' of all the songs, hits a lot of the overarching themes of [the album], which is...that you're always in a state of progress."
Integrity Blues was taken on a three-month supporting world tour that kicked off in London in September and concluded in Birmingham, Alabama in November. The collective will continue to take Blues on a live concert series around the globe between now and June. They are slated to promote the album at their scheduled stops in major international and domestic cities including Melbourne, Australia (January 20); Jacksonville, Florida (March 2); Dallas, Texas (March 11); and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (March 28).
Jimmy Eat World will also perform at the two-day Lollapalooza Festival in Argentina (March 31 – April 1) and Chile (April 1 – 2), joining the likes of The Chainsmokers, The xx, The 1975, and others.
Integrity Blues, released via RCA, is available for download here.
Original article by Marc Inocencio at iHeartRadio