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Jimmy Eat World bleed 25 years of fan dedication into a moving celebration of pop-punk as Cardiff Castle summer gigs come to a close

Bleed American hits 25 this year and the Arizona band are celebrating with a tour

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Jimmy Eat World at Cardiff Castle(Image: Depot Live)

It was never a phase, proclaim more than a handful of t-shirts around Cardiff Castle on Saturday night.Its a quarter of a century since Jimmy Eat World released Bleed American and, amid the Elder Emo Society motifs and bone-dry ground of Cardiff Castle, there are plenty of reminders that much has changed since 2001. The love for this band and album clearly hasnt.The show is a celebration of an album that is filled with the angst and uncertainty of growing up, and disillusionment with mainstream culture, but this crowd arent going to let that get in the way of a good time.Jimmy Eat World make us wait for it, though.The opening to their set is strikingly austere. Jim Adkins and the band occupy a relatively small strip at the front of the stage, with 12 enormous lights standing behind them and little else by way of spectacle.

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The band came to Cardiff on their 25th anniversary tour of Bleed American(Image: Depot Live)

The setlist begins a couple of years before Bleed American, with a four-song prologue from their 1999 album Clarity a record that established much of what Jimmy Eat World would become before the rest of the world really noticed.Then the lights move, and the stage opens up behind them, revealing the much grander production that had been hidden from view.It is a simple piece of theatre, but an effective one: the curtain being drawn back for the record that changed everything.And then comes Bleed American.The title track is a ferocious opener, quickly followed by A Praise Chorus. Im on my feet, Im on the floor, Im good to go, indeed.Then, just 20 minutes or so into their set, the biggest hit of all. There can be few songs from the early 2000s which have travelled as far as The Middle. Twenty-five years and nearly 1.4 billion Spotify streams later, the thrill of this pop-punk hit has not diminished one bit.Your House follows, before giving way to the dizzy release of Sweetness. Hear You Me slows things down and elicits more than the odd tear.The second half of this album never reached the same level of acclaim, as the hit-laden opening, but Get It Faster and The Authority Song keep things going just enough to stop this set from losing its early momentum.

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Thousands of fans saw the seminal pop-punk album performed(Image: Depot Live)

By the time the beautiful, understated My Sundown draws things to a close, the relentless punch of the albums opening run has subsided, but the sellout crowd remains completely in the palm of Adkins hand.The bands frontman seems genuinely moved by the way his songs have been received here.At one point he recalls the bewildering success that followed the albums release, going from sleeping on floors one minute to Top of the Pops the next.He pauses for breath more than once between tracks to take in the sights of the castle and the sellout crowd.We had no idea anybody would care.The four friends from Arizona wrote this album because it was fun, he explains. The idea that 25 years later theyd fill a castle 5,000 miles away with adoring fans never seemed to occur to them.There is something endearing about the apparent disbelief because Jimmy Eat World have never seemed especially interested in behaving like rock stars.The end of the album signals the end of the main set, but the encore tells us more of the bands story beyond Bleed American.Disintegration is a deep cut one for true hardcore fans before Pain and Big Casino take us to follow-up albums Futures and Chase This Light, while For Me This Is Heaven reaches all the way back to Clarity. Its a whirlwind tour of the band that existed before Bleed American made them stars, and the one they became afterwards.23 is a perfect closer: a sprawling, slow-burning epic that fills Cardiff Castle with soaring guitars before one final singalong brings the curtain down on another successful summer of gigs here.Jimmy Eat World have taken everybody on a journey tonight. Bleed American may be 25 years old now, but for the thousands here, this was never a phase.Some albums transport you back to another time and place. Tonight, Jimmy Eat World made 25 years feel like no time at all.

[Kathryn Williams]

Kathryn Williams

Kathryn is our online What's on Editor. Rhondda-born Kathryn handles all things food, drink, big gigs. During worktime she researches, interviews and writes pieces for WalesOnline. When not at work she enjoys pilates, cooking, walking and keeping an eye out for the next story be it restaurant openings, a fantastic village by the sea or a remote pub with a backstory!

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