At the end of June, underground Connecticut emo band the World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die landed on several Billboard charts with its debut full-length, Whenever, If Ever: number three on the Heatseekers and vinyl charts, eight on the Internet chart, 66 on the rock chart, and 196 on the Billboard 200. The album, which came out on tiny independent label Topshelf, might have done even better had it not leaked a month earlier via torrent site What.CD, undercutting potential sales before they could happen.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
When the eight-piece band came through Chicago in July, they played an alcohol- and drug-free Humboldt Park loft called Swerp Mansion, which shares its name with a DIY punk label. Swerp cofounder J. Matthew Nix says it was one of the last concerts hosted by the space, and that people traveled from as far away as Detroit and Minnesota to catch the World Is a Beautiful Place. “If any more showed up, we would’ve had to turn people away,” he says. As at all Swerp shows, 100 percent of the door money went to the bands, and according to Nix the venue was packed with a mix of scene veterans and folks who looked like they’d never come to a DIY show before but wanted to see the band with the big name. Once the music started, everybody crammed into the room and jostled around together (it was too crowded to properly dance, though a few people managed to crowd surf). “It was ridiculously rowdy, in as good of a way as possible,” he says.
The first wave of emo (though of course no one thought of it that way at the time) was a reactionary movement within the mid-80s hardcore scene in Washington, D.C. Bands such as Rites of Spring, Embrace, and Beefeater turned against the “loud, fast, and angry” approach, instead slowing the music down, injecting it with lots of melody, and belting out lyrics that looked inward instead of lashing out.
It’s taken a few years, but fourth-wave emo is outgrowing the underground. Bands playing a pastiche of older emo sounds—Joie de Vivre, Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate), Pianos Become the Teeth, Balance and Composure, Into It. Over It., Everyone Everywhere—have built international followings with the help of Tumblr, Bandcamp, DIY touring networks, and of course indie labels such as Topshelf, Count Your Lucky Stars, No Sleep, Run for Cover, and Tiny Engines. There’s a pre-existing audience so hungry for the sound that a “midwestern emo” tag on Bandcamp all but guarantees that people will find your music, no matter how obscure you are or what country you call home.
Ashdot’s experience is representative of the sense of kinship that crosses borders and generations to draw fans to the underground emo scene—a feeling of discovering something special, almost secret, that speaks to them and binds them together. The musicians look out for each other too: recently Rockford/Chicago band Joie de Vivre helped reunited Rockton emo group Gods Reflex (who were pretty obscure even in their late-90s heyday) book a headlining slot at the Beat Kitchen on Sat 8/10.
Sat 8/10, 8:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, $10, 17+.
