The Academy Is preview

The Academy Is
House Of Blues, Chicago
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008

Both Rolling Stone and Spin hammered The Academy Is’ second album, Santi, but so what? Fans still grabbed copies, Atlantic Records didn’t give Fueled By Ramen/Decaydence any ultimatums, and the Hoffman Estates-based band felt confident enough to book two House Of Blues gigs this weekend. Are critics overrated?

Maybe not as much as you might think. Judging from this summer’s Fast Times At Barrington High, the harsh words didn’t go unnoticed. William Beckett doesn’t rail against haters or threaten anybody’s butts with coconuts, but the album is such a natural successor to 2005’s Almost There it’s as if Santi‘s dark corners and classic rock whims never happened. Fast Times, like the movie to which its title refers, deals with the hormonal imbalance that is teenage love with the tacit suggestion that everyone play to their strengths. “Beware! Cougar!” aside — as a Glenbard East alum, it isn’t an obvious track to omit http://www.nbc5.com/news/1726650/detail.html — Beckett fills each anthemic bar with the right amount of adolescent anxiety, even if his penchant for underage sex scenes is a little creepy for a guy in his 20s. “Summer Hair = Forever Young” and “One More Weekend” both wish the summer could last forever, and for awhile, at least, emo isn’t such a bad word.

Academy headline the “Bill & Trav’s Bogus Journey Tour” with openers We The Kings, Hey Monday, and Carolina Liar.

— Steve Forstneger

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly