• American Football @ Button Factory, Dublin

    September 7, 2017 - By 

    It’s unlikely that you’re ever going to find a crowd as earnest as the gentle gang of 20-something year olds that bundle into The Button Factory for emo heroes, American Football. It’s been a long time coming but the Illinois band are finally making their Irish debut 20 years after their humble beginnings and emotions are running high among the expectant audience. The first thing to notice about American Football is that, despite how few shows they’ve actually played over the last two decades, you’d be hard pushed to find a band more technically accurate. Each song sounds identical to…

  • Playing The Long Game: An Interview With American Football

    August 31, 2017 - By 

    Few bands will ever have the underground cult status of American Football. The Illinois quartet are credited with the creation of one of emo’s most romanticised albums and have been part of the most anticipated return in the emo revival. Ahead of playing The Button Factory in Dublin on Monday, Kelly Doherty chats to Steve Lamos about their return. Where did the decision for American Football to get back together come from? A couple people came to us in light of the first album being reissued and asked us to play. I don’t think we had really considered it before…

  • American Football – American Football (LP2)

    October 24, 2016 - By 

    There was a lot going on back in 1999. Will Smith was declaring the next thousand years for himself, everyone was waiting for that big party Prince had promised and there was far, far too much clip art around. So it’s no wonder that some people missed a very quiet yet incredibly important moment in music history. Like the proverbial ripple in the pond (or butterfly hadouken) the release of American Football’s debut started as a small, localised wonder but since has proved to be a landmark and touchstone, for many reasons, but most notably for its influence on nascent genres like emo and post-rock. The…