Locals Only: Jimmy Eat World and The Maine Discuss Upcoming Performance, Illustrious Past & More | The Noise
Photos: Moe Horta
The Noise is Ones to Watch’s home for all things punk, hardcore, metal, emo, you name it.
In an industry driven by clicks and views, chart-topping Arizona natives Jimmy Eat World and The Maine prove that passion, community, and dedication are the secrets to success.
For the first time ever in their careers, the two influential acts have joined forces for an upcoming, one night only concert starring the two scene staples as well as fan-favorites such as Thursday, PVRIS, and Sydney Sprague at the Arizona Financial Theatre October 28th.
To help celebrate the upcoming show, The Noise was recently invited to a special media day gathering with members of both Jimmy Eat World and The Maine to discuss all there is to know about the alt-rock/emo event as well as notes about the bands’ illustrious past.
When asked how the star-studded lineup came to be, the bands knew they had some time off between appearances at the When We Were Young festival. Rick Burch of Jimmy Eat World stated, "The Maine was top of the list [to play with] just because they’re a great band and they’re from [Arizona]. So we thought it would be kind of like a double hometown show that would be something the Phoenix fans, especially of our kind of music, would really appreciate. Then we just started going through the list of other bands, the bands that we like, or that we’re friends with. That's kind of how the bill came together.”
Both bands aren’t strangers to the hard work it takes to succeed, especially in the early days of their careers where they would burn CDs to pass out for free and lurk local record stores hunting for shows to play. Each band invested countless hours spreading their music to anybody that would listen – which ultimately, of course, paid off in the long run. John O’Callaghan from The Maine explained, "It's gonna be hard but there’s a lot to learn from every experience you have. So I feel like then, as a band, we took that to heart and, you know, played shows for zero people, played shows for two people. You know, [we] just kept going and I think that's a big determining factor. There are plenty of people that think it’s too hard and give up, then there's the small portion of people that decide that's what they’re going to do no matter what.”