There was a dark moment in music when the term “emo” was misappropriated to represent all of the suburban mall punk bands with their greasy, long black hair, snakebites, star tattoos, and girl jeans expressing themselves with high school rhymes about their hearts crushed, angst over their suburban upbringings, and whatever the hell else they went on about… Honestly, the mid-2000 “emo” shit was exactly that: shit, and not my type of shit, either. When the term entered the mainstream lexicon and used in the way “goth” was five years prior, I knew it was only a matter of time before the punk community took the term back. Do you even know Embrace, the so-called “godfathers” of emo? Of course not.

Consisting of local legend Mike Kinsella (Cap’n Jazz, Owen, American Football) on drums, Matt Frank (The Para-Medics, Loose Lips Sink Ships) on guitar, and Evan Weiss (Into It. Over It.) on bass and vocals, Their/They’re/There is one Chicago superband ready to take the “emo” title back and show what the genre is really about. With Weiss’ indie vocals and introspective lyrics, Frank’s math rock-inspired guitar playing, and Kinsella’s subtle cymbal slaps, Their/They’re/There have been demonstrating why Chicago has always been the destination for Midwestern Punk.

In a recently released video for “New Blood” off of their latest EP, Analog Weekend, a man whose life is literally filled with blood finds that he himself lacks the life energy. You can watch the video below. The band will be embarking on a mini-East Coast tour, beginning with a hometown show at Schuba’s on Sunday, followed by dates in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Boston, and Hamden. Emo, post-hardcore, experimental indie, math-rock, whatever you want to call them: Their/They’re/There is good, and that’s ultimately what matters.

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Their / They're / There Tour