American Football @ Boulder Theater
American Football x Circling Girl
09.22.26
circling Girl
One of my favorite parts of being so immersed in the local scene is getting to see some of your friends play these insanely special bills. This is one of those cases.
When Circling Girl, a Denver-based dream pop trio, got announced for this show I was immediately stoked and had to come to this show instead of the Red Rocks date the next day. To be able to witness your friends play alongside second-wave emo, Midwest emo pioneers like American Football, is not something that happens every day.
They started the evening off intimate and strong, with Isabel Daninger (vocals) beginning the set huddled in a ball, before taking a stand, as if metamorphosing over the course of the first track. An ethereal vocal pairing tied together over dreamy waves of sound. The entire theatre felt immersed in their world; even while they navigated some gear difficulties, it seemed effortless and intentional. The lighting absolutely paired with this as well. Tiny fairy circles and lines danced around the backdrop of the stage and along the walls of the theatre.
Hearing the crowd absolutely erupt at the end of their set as they walked off stage to a track of noise was heartwarming. Having such a strong local start to the night was perfect for what was in store with the headliners...
American Football
"I'm just two little boys in a trenchcoat with plastic knives"
Where do I even begin?
With riots extending back to 1989 and the Cap'n Jazz era (Mike Kinsella's project before American Football), and the first release from American Football coming out in 1998, Mike Kinsella (vocalist) has been contributing, shaping, and inspiring the emo scene for 37 years. Though American Football did not have immediate commercial success (LP1 was actually considered a flop at the time of its release), it spent 15 years garnering underground fame and traction before the band reformed in 2014.
I discovered American Football via some YouTube music-recommended rabbit hole sometime in late middle school, early high school, when hearing 'Never Meant' for the first time sends you into a rough state. From there, I got into the rest of their discography and connected to it more within the last few years. When LP4 was announced earlier this year and subsequently released, I was heartbroken I couldn't make it to their Denver date, but beyond stoked I had the chance to make it to this one
Being a professor at Colorado University, it was so cute to see Steve Lamos (drummer) up in the balcony before his set, having a little meet-up with some of his students and their friends.
Performing as a seven-piece, everything felt incredibly dialed in, with backing visuals tailored to each song, giving the impression of different weather conditions at times; I was constantly reminded of watching rain fall on a backlit window, driving through a blizzard, watching the light trickle through tree leaves, becoming less abstract at points with the visual of fungi and grass growing. Adding a very literal feeling of growth and progression on top of the emo melodies accompanying it.
One of the immediate highlights was Lamos pulling out a trumpet and immediately adding that recognizable longing brass element that makes you look in towards yourself and find something to yearn for; convincing the audience to lose themselves and sway along to the melodies at play.
The pre-encore set concluded with ‘Never Meant’, where after the first few notes, everyone lets out a breath of excitement to be able to witness and experience that song live and in person on an Autumn night. One thing I have to say with the utmost praise is how absolutely fantastic American Football sounds live; despite there being decades spanning between last night and the release of LP1, is how it closely it resembles the original recording. There is, of course, an evolution to the discography of American Football, especially in the lyricism of Kinsella; it's one of those things where there is still heartbreak and grief to write about and create music inspired by, but LP4 contains more mature themes surrounding divorce, aging, and depressive isolation instead of that coming-of-age isolation and youthful adolescent heartbreak.
"I lost everything in the dark, friends for life, a wilted wife."
