When you’re a young band first breaking into the scene in the early 2000s, especially coming from a state as musically influenced as New Jersey, there’s usually a unanimous goal in mind: sign with Drive-Thru Records. Drive-Thru was the pinnacle indie label for artists during this time, especially with the driving success of signed forerunners New Found Glory, Dashboard Confessional and Hellogoodbye. And all it took was mailing in a basement-recorded demo tape and The Early November was signed.
Their debut album For All of This was catchy and relevant to what people in the scene wanted to hear, and even as band members came and went and then came back during their first few albums, lead singer Ace Enders and drummer Jeff Kummer never lost heart of the band’s original sound. But they did continue to explore the depths of their musical capabilities as heard in their whopping three-disc album of high acclaim, The Mother, The Mechanic, and the Path, which ended up becoming one of the band’s most successful records. It’s a story told through music-personal and adventurous and different—and from the maturity of its cohesiveness you’d think that the band would be so stoked from its success and not amidst calling it quits.
Years went by. Getting the band back together wasn’t a prime focus, though. It was discovering themselves and catching up on all the life things they missed out on since they first started the band at such a young age and dealing with the pressure of measuring up to the likes of their fellow musicians on such a prominent indie label. But The Early November reunited after that soul-searching hiatus, wrote two more albums, and now are back on tour to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of The Mother, The Mechanic, and the Path.
January 13
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Doors 7 p.m.
$20
axs.com
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