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‘Nice to Know You’: 1990s alt-rock bands hit the road together

By Tara Rack-Amber trackamber@heraldstandard.Com 4 min read
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Felix Marquez

Brandon Boyd, lead singer for the U.S. band Incubus performs during the 2015 Cumbre Tajin music festival in Papantla, Mexico, Friday, March 20, 2015.

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Amy Harris

Tom Linton, left, and Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World perform at the 2016 KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas at The Forum on Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016, in Inglewood, Calif. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)

Early 1990s alt-rock bands Incubus and Jimmy Eat World will make a tour stop at the Keybank Pavilion in Burgettstown on July 29.

With hits like “Drive” and “Wish you Were Here” and “The Middle” and “Always Be,” Incubus and Jimmy Eat World, respectively, have been entertaining audiences for more than two decades.

Band members Brandon Boyd, Mike Einziger, Jose Pasillas, Chris Kilmore and Ben Kenney have gathered their collective musical influences of the Beastie Boys, Alice in Chains, Megadeath and more to give Incubus its iconic sound.

The band released its debut, full-length album, “S.C.I.E.N.C.E.” in 1997, and had accrued such a following that they were included in the following year’s Ozzfest tour before returning to the studio to record their follow-up album “Make Yourself” that had the hit single “Pardon Me.”

Incubus’ biggest hit “Drive” arrived on airwaves in 2001 and became their first top 10 hit.

The band released their latest album “8” in April of this year, with the single “Glitterbomb” to follow.

According to an interview with Steve Baltin of Yahoo Music, a lot of the songs that were a part of “8” were crafted out of a heartbreak that Boyd had experienced after the ending of a long term relationship.

“Love is something that is continually inspiring to me, but also continually frustrating and elusive. It’s like love is like the proverbial soap bar in the shower: ‘I got it,’ slips out from in between your fingers,” said Boyd according to Baltin.

“I was in a relationship for the better part of 10 years, and the relationship shifted where we’re not a traditional couple anymore. We went back into a place where we’re remaining platonic friends, which is where we started. But that is a tough transition, no matter who you are.”

In promotion of this tour, Incubus teamed up with fellow 90s alt-rockers, Jimmy Eat World.

Three years before Incubus’ “Drive” hit airwaves, Jimmy Eat World released “Clarity” in 1999 that a lot of people consider to be a “landmark of the emo genre.”

Comprised of band members, Jim Adkins, Tom Linton, Rick Burch and Zach Lind, Jimmy Eat World, has released nine albums with their most recent “Integrity Blues” dropping in 2016.

In an interview with Rolling Stone’s Jonathan Bernstein, Jimmy Eat World front man, Jim Adkins said the band had to take a chance on “Integrity Blues” in order to grow.

“As a band, we came to a place where we realized that in order to really grow we needed to check ourselves and check on some of our default responses to musical problems that come up,” said Atkins according to Bernstein. “We’ve been doing this for so long, and there’s good and bad to that.”

AllMusic reviewer, Neil Z. Yeung said, “Like a city skyline shimmering under a night sky, Jimmy Eat World’s ninth LP, ‘Integrity Blues,’ shines in the dark with glimmering production, a refreshed sense for hooks and some new tricks to add to their catalog.”

With both of these two bands that made a mark in their genres, fans will likely hear a mixture of these groundbreaking songs and new soon-to-be hits.

“We’ll definitely be playing some new music, but it’s really fun for us still to play our old music,” said Boyd according to ABC’s Randy Holmes.

“It will hopefully be one of those face-melting, mind-blowing, jean-(expletive) concert experiences that will make people wanna come back again and again.”

Tickets for Incubus and Jimmy Eat World start at $20 for lawn seats and can be purchased through livenation.com.

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