It's not often that a venue can be the undoing of an artist's performance, but that was the very case for emo-rockers Jimmy Eat World's otherwise energetic show at American University's Bender Arena. While the Arizona-based band tightly maneuveured their way through songs spanning a long career, one could hardly help but feel the dissonance between performance and place. It may have been the basketball arena's bleachers, it may have been the banners touting the university's athletic accomplishments, it may have been the disappointing acoustics -- whatever it was, the awkward feeling of being back at a high school dance took something away from the intimacy and energy of the band's show. Bender Arena, simply stated, is not the place for a good rock show.

That notwithstanding, Jimmy Eat World powerfully moved between hard rockers such as "Bleed American" and "Futures," the slower yet anthematic "Work" and "Lucky Denver Mint," and well-known sing-alongs "The Middle" and the concert's closer, "Sweetness." Most of the band's music carefully toes the line between pop and hard rock, a precarious balance that few bands successfully manage to negotiate over the course of multiple records (Jimmy Eat World's 10-year career includes six records to date, most recently 2004's "Futures", which has sold 421,000 copies in the U.S.) without sounding like they are trying too hard. In any other circumstance, "23" and "Kill" would sound like tear-jerking ballads, but the band's skillful performance of the songs made you not hate yourself for singing along.

Jimmy Eat World may best exemplify emo-rock -- loud and fast when they need to be, but not unwilling to be slow and introspective. Best yet, the band rarely resorts to pre-packaged anger that infuses most hard rock music today.

Sharing the bill with Jimmy Eat World was co-headliner Taking Back Sunday, an Amityville, NY-based band whose attempt at melodic hardcore was confusing at best and tiresome at worst. The band's singer clearly spent more time learning to twirl his microphone artistically around his body than he did bothering to learn the basics of singing, and the arena's cavernous acoustics turned most songs into indecipherable sonic mush. While a part of the crowd clearly enjoyed the band's set, this DCist couldn't help but look at his watch and hope for the last song -- far too long in coming.

The image above, of Jimmy Eat World's Jim Adkins, was taken from the band's website.