It’s been nearly 25 years since American Football released its first album, but the indie rock band is just now playing its first club show in Atlanta.
“This is actually only our third show in Atlanta, and our first club show,” guitarist and singer Steve Holmes, said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “First two times we played at festivals: Shaky Knees in 2015 and Wrecking Ball in 2016. I do remember being super nervous at that Shaky Knees show as we were still a fledgling band at that point, and it was only our second festival we’d ever played.”
Credit: Atiba Jefferson
Credit: Atiba Jefferson
The band will co-headline with Dinosaur Jr. on Friday, Sept. 8, at The Masquerade in Atlanta.
Though American Football’s origins stretch back to 1997, it wasn’t even a band for many of the years between then and now.
Holmes formed the band in college in Urbana, Illinois, with fellow students Steve Lamos and Mike Kinsella. Following the 1999 release of that first album — all three of the band’s full-length releases are titled “American Football” — the band broke up. It would be 14 years before the members reconvened, a hiatus that only saw their legend grow among emo connoisseurs.
During that time away from the band, the three musicians focused on their careers outside music.
“The reality is that Lamos and I both have non-music careers outside of the band,” said Holmes. “The band is more of an amazing part-time job for us in that respect.”
Credit: Atiba Jefferson
Credit: Atiba Jefferson
Once the band reconvened, and with the addition of Mike Kinsella’s cousin Nate Kinsella on bass, American Football released a deluxe edition of the first album and its second self-titled album within the first two years.
The band’s music, a mix of complex chords, unusual time signatures and atypical chord progressions, captivated audiences, but Holmes hints that it’s the lyrics that have drawn a mostly younger crowd — and a loyal one.
“Lyrically, this song is a good representation of why the first LP has resonated with so many people through the years,” said Holmes, referring to “The Summer Ends,” in which a gently arpeggiated guitar and a forlorn trumpet lead into the opening lines “Thinking about leaving/ How I should say goodbye.”
“The lyrics are brief but immediately relatable to any high school or college kid going through their first breakup, and sort of split the difference between sad and optimistic.”
In 2021, Lamos left the band for a brief time. “That pause got extended for everyone by the pandemic,” Holmes said. “We weren’t really sure how or if we would carry on at that point. Thankfully, one thing this band excels at is patience, and we’re happy to have him back in the band.”
Ultimately, he said, the time away has strengthened the band and brought the musicians closer together.
“We’ve played some of our best shows ever this year, and after nine years of doing this we think we might actually be getting good at it,” Holmes said. “I think the time away made us all that much more appreciative of how lucky we are to be able to do this at all.”
In addition to the return to touring, the band has been creating new songs. When describing the recording process, Holmes said that “everyone writes on their own recording demos — sometimes just a riff, sometimes a fully arranged song — and throws them in a shared Dropbox to see what the others make of it. For any given record, we’ll have 20 to 30 song ideas that we’ll narrow down to a dozen or so that we work out band arrangements for before heading into the studio to make a record. By the time you get to the studio most of the creative part has already happened, and it’s more about trying to document the song.”
With a renaissance that has now far outlasted the band’s original incarnation, American Football’s devoted fanbase is something the band doesn’t take for granted.
“Mostly though, it’s a privilege to get to play music for people that are excited to see us. A lot of great musicians and bands never find an audience no matter how talented they are, and we recognize how rare it is. We see this second act for American Football as a total gift.”
MUSIC PREVIEW
American Football and Dinosaur Jr.
7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 8. $45-$65. The Masquerade, 75 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive SW, Atlanta. 404-577-8178, masqueradeatlanta.com.
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