With two years since their last area shows and a new album to tour behind, Jimmy Eat World had nothing but good expectations to fulfill. Unfortunately, last night’s show to a capacity crowd was uneven at best and flat at worst, with new songs failing to capture the imagination and many of the old songs lacking energy.

Kicking off their set with the anthemic “Big Casino,” the first single from their most recent effort, Chase This Light, it quickly became obvious why the show wouldn’t be very good. Jimmy Eat World crafts and produces fantastic records, but the dense layers that permeate many of their songs rarely translate live. The new songs they performed — alongside “Big Casino,” they hit “Let It Happen,” “Always Be” and “Carry You” — sounded empty, lacking the synths, keys and backing vocals they feature on the album. (Ironically, the new album is almost too heavy in such layers, sapping some of the songs of their energy.)

Photos by Kyle Gustafson.