Get Up Kids Apologize For Emo

It could be argued that Rites Of Spring, Guy Picciotto's pre-Fugazi act, were the first emo band. That said, The Get Up Kids are one of the main influences of today's buckets of guyliner-wearing, tortured poetry-writing emo bands. And now they've apologized for it.

Jim Suptic, guitarist/singer for the recently reunited Kansas City, Mo. quintet spoke to Drowned In Sound, and he had some interesting things to say when asked how the band's Something To Write Home About debut had influenced emo bands.

"Honestly, I don't often think about the state of 'emo,'" he said. "The punk scene we came out of and the punk scene now are completely different. It's like glam rock now. We played the Bamboozle fests this year and we felt really out of place. I could name maybe three bands we played with. It was just a sea of neon shirts to us. If this is the world we helped create, then I apologise."

He also further distanced his band from the Fall Out Boys and My Chemical Romances of today.

"If a band gets huge and they say we inspired them, great," Suptic said. "The problem is most of them aren't very good. What does that say about us? I don't know. Maybe we sucked. At least we can play our instruments."

Get Up Kids will play the following dates on their reunion tour:

Aug. 16 Kingston-Upon-Thames, England @ The Peel
Aug. 17 Birmingham, England @ Academy 2
Aug. 18 Manchester, England @ Academy 2
Aug. 19 London, England @ Electric Ballroom
Aug. 20 Frankfurt, Germany @ Batschkapp
Aug. 21 Hasselt, Belgium @ Pukkelpop Festival
Aug. 22 Ludinghausen, Germany @ Area 4 Festival
Aug. 23 Hamburg, Germany @ Ubel Und Gefahrlich
Aug. 25 Berlin, Germany @ Postbahnhof
Aug. 26 Erlangen, Germany @ E-Werk
Aug. 27 Munich, Germany @ Backstage
Aug. 28 Zurich, Switzerland @ Abart
Aug. 29 Ceccano, Italy @ Eastpak Etnika
Aug. 30 Bologna, Italy @ Estragon
Sept. 11 Kansas City, MO @ Harrah's
Sept. 15 Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater
Sept. 16 Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue
Sept. 18 Seattle, WA @ Neumos
Sept. 19 Portland, OR @ Music Fest NW
Sept. 21 San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
Sept. 23 Pomona, CA @ The Glasshouse
Sept. 25 San Diego, CA @ House Of Blues
Sept. 26 Las Vegas, NV @ House Of Blues
Sept. 27 Tempe, AZ @ Clubhouse
Sept. 29 San Antonio, TX @ White Rabbit
Sept. 30 Dallas, TX @ Granada Theatre
Oct. 1 Oklahoma, OK @ Diamond Ballroom
Oct. 2 Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
Oct. 3 Iowa City, IA @ Picador
Oct. 20 Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theatre
Oct. 21-22 Chicago, IL @ The Metro
Oct. 23 Cleveland, OH @ House Of Blues
Oct. 24 Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theater
Oct. 25 Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
Oct. 27 Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
Oct. 28 Worcester, MA @ Palladium
Oct. 29 New Haven, CT @ Toad's Place
Oct. 31 New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
Nov. 1 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall Of Williamsburg
Nov. 3 Washington, DC @ Nightclub 9:30
Nov. 4 Norfolk, VA @ The NorVA Theatre
Nov. 5 Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero
Nov. 6 Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre Of The Living Arts
Nov. 7 Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theater
Nov. 8 Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
Nov. 10 Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle
Nov. 11 Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
Nov. 12 Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution
Nov. 13 Orlando, FL @ House Of Blues
Nov. 14 St. Petersburg, FL @ State Theater
Nov. 16 Baton Rouge, LA @ Spanish Moon
Nov. 17 Houston, TX @ House Of Blues
Nov. 18 Austin, TX @ Emo's