Where Are Your Boys Tonight?: The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008

by Chris Payne

A kid showed up from fucking Spain. He bought a ticket and flew. I always considered us a local Long Island band, to have a kid show up from fucking Spain . . . I was like, “What? Sick.”

CHRIS CARRABBA: We played on a bunch of tables put together. There was no crowd. It was just Thursday and there were two people in the crowd: the Way brothers. Just Gerard and Mikey. The Way brothers came up and told me about this band they were starting. They started rattling off what their influences were, and I remember thinking, “This is pretty eclectic stuff. This could be special.”

New Jersey is a place with a chip on its shoulder. It’s Springsteen singing “Jungleland.” It’s Danzig at the Chiller Theatre Expo [the horror and sci-fi convention], selling 45s. It’s that famous scene in Cop Land where they’re looking out over the river to Manhattan. It’s a place of unrequited dreamers. But occasionally there’s the ones who get out.

PETE WENTZ: It’s weird to think of Jersey as a promised land, right? But for that kind of music, it definitely was.

MIKEY WAY: I’m lucky to have had those experiences with people, however short they may be. Kids were really appreciative of what our music did for them. “You saved my life” became a big keystone. We would flip it back at them: “You saved your life,” because it’s the truth. We didn’t really do anything, you know what I mean? Maybe we made them realize they could save their life, in whatever way they meant it. There