Emo Endures: American Football Packs District Music Hall
Reviewed for The Concert Chronicles. Original article here.
American Football’s debut studio album, LP1, dropped in 1999—the same year I graduated high school in Alaska. At the time, my world revolved around Metallica and Pearl Jam, the kinds of bands that filled arenas and dominated the local rock radio station. Emo? Math rock? Those weren’t even on my radar yet. But as I packed up my life and headed into my first semester of college, LP1 quietly entered the world, waiting 25 years for my ears to find it.
Listen, I don’t care that I am aging myself! Back then, discovering music was an entirely different experience. There was no streaming, no Spotify playlists, no social media algorithms telling you what to listen to next. If you wanted to share a song, you burned a CD filled with tracks you’d painstakingly downloaded through a dial-up connection, hoping no one picked up the phone and ruined your progress. Music was something you searched for, something you passed along like a secret.
It’s wild to think that an album with a blend of intricate guitar work, a lonely trumpet, and heartbroken lyrics would, decades later, be selling out venues packed with fans who weren’t even born when it was released. But LP1 was was a slow-burning classic, an emotional time capsule that somehow only grows more relevant with age.
All these years later, I stood as concert photographer in a sold-out crowd at District Music Hall in Norwalk, Connecticut, where I live now, watching American Football bring those songs to life once again. It was a surreal, full-circle moment—proof that the best music doesn’t just belong to one era. It lingers, waiting to be rediscovered by the next generation.
The stage design for American Football’s set at District Music Hall was as evocative as the music itself. Behind the band, a massive projection of scenes from suburbia and the house from the cover of LP1, long associated with the band’s legacy. As the show unfolded, the video backdrop subtly shifted. Pairs of lights backlit the band members, bringing back memories of late-night chats with high school friends on the side of the road, lit only by our car headlights.
Musically, the band was as tight as ever. The setlist, of course, was anchored by LP1, and hearing songs in a live setting brought new depths to American Football’s layered arrangements. There was a warmth to the performance, a feeling that the band was as much a part of this shared nostalgia as the crowd. And yet, this wasn’t just a trip down memory lane—American Football’s music remains as relevant as ever. This 25th-anniversary tour is proof that sometimes, the best art takes its time to be truly understood.
FULL SETLIST
Five Silent Miles
American Football LP1
The Summer Ends
Honestly?
For Sure.
You Know I Should Be Leaving Soon
But the Regrets Are Killing Me
I'll See You When We're Both Not So Emotional
Stay Home / The One With the Wurlitzer
Encore:
Where Are We Now?
My Instincts Are the Enemy
Born to Lose
Uncomfortably Numb
Every Wave to Ever Rise
Doom in Full Bloom
Never Meant
