Emery

Are you a tail-end Gen Xer, or maybe even a Millennial? Guess what, guys: Our music is the old people’s music now. But don’t reach for the Metamucil just yet or feel like you have to pick out matching burial plots. Aging gracefully and recognizing that youth is wasted on the young is a perk of living; the alternative is far worse. Some bands forget this and keep behaving like they’re ageless until it’s painfully obvious that they aren’t.

Emery is not one of those bands. They’re embracing a role not generally available in one’s 20s: elder statesmen and keepers of a post-hardcore ethos that not every band can still carry with aplomb. Formed in 2001 in a town with a pretty good name, considering — Rock Hill, S.C. — Emery quickly headed west to Seattle, and the choice of a city with a long record of nurturing bands bore out. A few line-up changes and many years of touring later, Emery in 2022 are on the Labeled Fest tour with a mix-and-match itinerary of label mates from Tooth & Nail Records and Solidstate Records: Norma Jean, Aaron Gillespie (of Underoath), Oh Sleeper, Watashi Wa, Salt Creek and Idle Threat.

Amongst this group of worthies, Emery have super-labeled themselves “Emery aka The Masters of Rock aka Badass Dads Band,” and you know what? That’s fair. Self-deprecation coupled with acknowledgement that the tour merch is now for emo moms and dads, and their kids, tells you Emery have embraced growing up. Let’s be honest: It’s a little weird to invite friends over to barbecue in the backyard or hang by the pool, and everyone is in black or wearing cut-off jean shorts non-ironically and Atreyu, Black Flag and Converge tees with the sleeves removed. But in context it’s no weirder than seeing our parents in Rolling Stones concert shirts and Panama Jack hats doing the same. Like a Boomer icon sang, it’s the circle of life!

Emery play for 18+ with Aaron Gillespie and Idle Threat, 7:30pm Sunday July 10 at Respectable Street in West Palm Beach. emerymusic.com ~ Tim Moffatt