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The Noise is Ones to Watch’s home for all things punk, hardcore, metal, emo, you name it.

In an industry driven by clicks and views, chart-topping Arizona natives Jimmy Eat World and The Maine prove that passion, community, and dedication are the secrets to success. 

For the first time ever in their careers, the two influential acts have joined forces for an upcoming, one night only concert starring the two scene staples as well as fan-favorites such as Thursday, PVRIS, and Sydney Sprague at the Arizona Financial Theatre October 28th. 

To help celebrate the upcoming show, The Noise was recently invited to a special media day gathering with members of both Jimmy Eat World and The Maine to discuss all there is to know about the alt-rock/emo event as well as notes about the bands’ illustrious past. 

When asked how the star-studded lineup came to be, the bands knew they had some time off between appearances at the When We Were Young festival. Rick Burch of Jimmy Eat World stated, "The Maine was top of the list [to play with] just because they’re a great band and they’re from [Arizona]. So we thought it would be kind of like a double hometown show that would be something the Phoenix fans, especially of our kind of music, would really appreciate. Then we just started going through the list of other bands, the bands that we like, or that we’re friends with. That's kind of how the bill came together.”

Both bands aren’t strangers to the hard work it takes to succeed, especially in the early days of their careers where they would burn CDs to pass out for free and lurk local record stores hunting for shows to play. Each band invested countless hours spreading their music to anybody that would listen – which ultimately, of course, paid off in the long run. John O’Callaghan from The Maine explained, "It's gonna be hard but there’s a lot to learn from every experience you have. So I feel like then, as a band, we took that to heart and, you know, played shows for zero people, played shows for two people. You know, [we] just kept going and I think that's a big determining factor. There are plenty of people that think it’s too hard and give up, then there's the small portion of people that decide that's what they’re going to do no matter what.”

When asked if his band ever considered giving up, Burch said, "[We] never considered giving up because we were having so much fun. Sometimes we would turn up into town without a gig. Like the gig we thought we had wouldn’t happen so we'd go to the record store. By talking to the people there, we'd get a contact of someone who’d go ‘my dad has a generator and a warehouse we can go play over there.’ We would gig even if there was no one there.”

Both acts equally expressed gratitude when speaking about mentors or bands that took them under their wing when they were just getting started and hope to influence the future generation in the same way. The Maine reminisced about watching how Jimmy Eat World found success outside of the local Arizona scene with drummer Pat Kirch stating, "Seeing bands like Jimmy Eat World and The Format become bands that you’d see on MTV and that your parents would know, and the fact that they were from here, was a big inspiration that it was possible. I think until you see that it's possible, you don’t really know where to go.”

While both bands are very active on the road, Jimmy Eat World frontman/guitarist Jim Adkins has found that songs they've been playing for over 20 years can take on new meaning and welcomes the connections made while on tour. Adkins noted, "I try to, whatever today has been like, whatever expectations I might have for the gig that night, I try to zero totally out before we go on and sort of let it unfold and see where it goes. That way, maybe a song like ‘The Middle’, we’ve played a lot, it has a chance to be something different. It has a chance to breathe and evolve. The connection that you make with people, you can just focus on that. The feedback from there tells you a lot about the material you’ve been working on. It’s an amazingly rewarding experience.”

For a chance to catch both Jimmy Eat World and The Maine take the stage together at Arizona Financial Theatre, be sure to grab tickets here.