Appleton: Indy, are you ready for the saddest summer in recent memory?
For anyone lamenting a cold, dismal March, I have excellent news: It's about to get worse.
The weather may improve, but the local vibe is set for a titanic shift to the emotional, the sad and the angsty, as nine bands born of and molded by the '00s emo music revival are set to perform in Indianapolis within an 80-day span starting at the end of May.
The summer of sadness will be bookended by two of the all-time greats, Death Cab for Cutie and Jimmy Eat World, performing outdoors in the heart of the city.
Last week's column:Appleton: A Hoosier sweep of several top Oscars? It could happen
Although the genre has faded, and its paragon bands have grown in complexity and depth, I'm morbidly pleased to share this list of summer shows sure to make millennials realize the feelings we had at 16 weren't as complex as we once thought.
Death Cab for Cutie
May 31 TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park
We kick off of course with the greatest of the emo genre. The alpha and the omega. The best and worst of our feelings in band form.
Death Cab played a solid set at the All IN Music & Arts Festival in September, but unfortunately, the memory that stuck with me from that show was frontman Ben Gibbard waving off the crowd for clapping horribly off-beat.
We won't be getting the double nostalgia sandwich of Gibbard's The Postal Service and Death Cab playing their seminal albums, "Give Up" and "Transatlanticism," back-to-back. That tour is largely skipping the Midwest.
But we do get the modern version of Death Cab, which brings a more diverse sound.
Paramore
A group known for bringing positive energy, even to the sad, teenaged lyrics of its early music, will be up next. Like Death Cab, Paramore has outgrown the emo label with more than a decade of solid writing and performing outside the genre.
But also like Death Cab, the band shows flashes of that early melancholy. I have somehow never seen Paramore live, but that will soon be rectified.
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WonderRoad
Indianapolis's contemporary rock festival, WonderRoad, features a few emo veterans.
Saturday headliner Weezer may not be closely identified with the genre, as it was already a mainstream hitmaker by the mid-'90s, but the group did as much to lay the groundwork for post-millennium melodramatic rock as any.
In 1996, the group released "Pinkerton," an emo album before the term regained significance featuring tracks written by frontman Rivers Cuomo after he went back to college and got sad.
But it's all good stuff at a Weezer show. There's no wasted motion up there.
On Sunday, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness will have what you need. The Wilderness is a solid modern band in its own right, but McMahon pulls heavily from his two emo powerhouse projects, Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin, to make this a millennial can't-miss set.
Jack's Mannequin's "Everything in Transit" is a perfect album. It came out the summer before senior year, and we would blare it at the pizza shop I worked in while making dough every morning.
Dashboard Confessional
Another pillar of '00s emo was announced Monday, as Dashboard Confessional will open for Counting Crows in June.
In a cruel twist of fate, we will have to choose between this show and the first day of WonderRoad. An intrepid fan could theoretically catch Dashboard then drive to Garfield Park for Weezer, but that would be as costly as it is ambitious.
Dashboard are the true lords of the sappy love song wing of the genre and worth a look if you're skipping WonderRoad.
Fall Out Boy
Tickets are growing scarce for one of the year's biggest shows, so this is not one to wait on for my fellow sad kids.
Truth be told, I've never been a huge Fall Out Boy fan. But I am looking forward to seeing what the band can do in front of what I'm guessing will be 20,000+ in attendance at Ruoff.
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Sad Summer Festival
Two familiar bands for mid-aughts teenagers here: Taking Back Sunday and Motion City Soundtrack.
About five years ago, I saw Taking Back Sunday open for Dashboard Confessional at a park amphitheater down the street from my high school. It was a dream show filled with nightmare moments, as every bathroom trip and beer run involved making small talk with people I hadn't seen since high school.
The festival's title tells me everything I need to know about this one.
Jimmy Eat World
An incredible show was quietly announced earlier this week, as Jimmy Eat World will play with Manchester Orchestra and Middle Kids in August. All three are excellent bands.
Jimmy Eat World playing "Bleed American" live is an out-of-body experience. It's so loud you feel it in your spleen. It's one of the five moments that comes to my mind when I conceptualize live music in general, and that's after seeing hundreds of bands in 25 years as a music fan.
Do not miss this show. I've already marked this as my birthday present. I will not be working that night.
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Rory Appleton is the pop culture reporter and columnist at IndyStar. Contact him at 317-552-9044 and rappleton@indystar.com, or follow him on Twitter at @RoryDoesPhonics.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Fall Out Boy, Paramore and more will play Indianapolis this summer
