Monday, July 31, Launchpad (all-ages); $8 in advance, $10 at the door: When Jim Suptic, one of the singers of the now dissolved Get Up Kids, started his own band, he knew he wanted to get back to the good old days of being part of a cohesive group. “Blackpool Lights are what The Get Up Kids started out as,” says Septic. “[The Get Up Kids] began as a real band effort where we didn’t tell people how or what to play. We all wrote songs together. By the end, it was less like a band and more like a bunch of separate songwriters.” Suptic’s faith in the newly formed Blackpool Lights prompted him to start his own label, Curb Appeal Records, based out of Kansas City, Mo. “I just felt we could do a better job than everyone else in terms of running a label,” Suptic explains. “We said, let’s put the record out and see what happens. If it fails, then we can sell it to another label. So far, it hasn’t failed; and now when we want something we get it as opposed to having to beg for it.” Blackpool Lights doesn’t strain to pull away from the emo image created by one of its founding member’s previous work. “Maybe Just Maybe,” the fourth track on the band’s debut album, This Town’s Disaster, is a shimmering example of The Get Up Kids-esque slow paced, sensitive rock; complete with acoustic guitar and a poignant singing style. However, the very next song, “It’s Never About What It’s About,” comes to the plate with a more aggressive swing and feistier lyrical content, more reminiscent of skate punk than anything emo. As for whether or not Suptic plans to get back together with his ‘Get Up’ mates in the near future? “Not anytime soon,” Septic affirms. “Right now there’s no chance whatsoever. That was the past and [Blackpool Lights] is the future.”
Blackpool Lights
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