The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus don’t fake it at The Truman

With support from Outline in Color and Shotgun Wedding Singers for the final tour stop of an 'elder emo' juggernaut.

May 2, 2024

Emily Jacobs,

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. // photo by Emily Jacobs

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
with Outline in Color and Shotgun Wedding Singers
The Truman
Sunday, April 28

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus took audience members back in time to the mid-2000s in the final stop of a brief tour with Outline in Color at The Truman on Sunday night.

This timing of this tour is rather random, as they haven’t released any new music recently—although, even if they had, most people still only know their debut record, Don’t You Fake It, which catapulted Red Jumpsuit Apparatus into the mainstream nearly 20 years ago. [I know, I gasped too when I did the math.]

However, I highly recommend their most recent EP, The Emergency EP. Released in 2020, it encompasses some of the best lyricism of the band’s career. Never shying away from addressing difficult issues in their music—their best-known song is about domestic violence, after all—this record tackles the issues of racism and transphobia.

Unfortunately for Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, it appears they’re not selling as many tickets as they were back in the day, as the back half of the venue was curtained off. But as an attendee, I enjoyed the intimacy of this show. The last time I saw Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, I was in the middle of a thick crowd in 105-degree weather at a festival, so I definitely preferred seeing them in this setting.

Local pop-punk band Shotgun Wedding Singer got the night off to a fun start. They accomplished the rare feat of getting the crowd to sing along when almost no one knew the words. This was even more mind-boggling to me when they shared that they’d only been a band for a couple of months—and they’re already opening for Red Jumpsuit Apparatus?? Clearly, this band is going places. If you’re interested in checking them out, they’re playing their first headlining show at the Rino on May 10.

Outline in Color, a metalcore band from Tulsa, came bounding onto the stage in the wake of the previous band’s energy. They didn’t have as much to say, but they made up for that in stage presence, building up the crowd’s momentum before the much-anticipated main act. Unclean vocalist Michael Skaggs was all over the stage, rocking baggy black pants and a crop top, with the voice of clean vocalist/bassist Jonathan Grimes providing a nice complement. Their music is heavier than I would’ve expected from a band opening for Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, but I have zero complaints there. Even though I didn’t know a single song, I found myself head-banging along with the rest of the audience.

Naturally, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus took the stage to abundant applause from the crowd, their lead vocalist and only remaining original band member Ronnie Winter sporting the flagship shoe of their elder emo fanbase—the checkerboard slip-on Vans.

“I’m kind of proud of that, ‘cause that means we did something at some point,” says Winter of their labeling as “elder emo.”

Most of their setlist was comprised of songs from Don’t You Fake It, with a couple of songs from The Emergency EP peppered in—but they did tease new music coming out later this year.

“The truth is, some people out there only know that one song,” Winter says, before closing out their set with “Face Down.”

Winter even asked the crowd to raise their hands if they only knew the words to “Face Down,” and roughly ten people raised their hands.

“I believe that guy,” Winter joked, pointing at one of the audience members who raised their hand.

But everyone raised their hands when Winter asked the crowd if they’d rather have two more songs instead of just one. With that, they belted out a cover of blink-182’s “All the Small Things”—making for two songs that everyone knew the words to.

It’s always fun when a band can make light of its one-album wonder status. Either way, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus was an awesome time for casual and serious fans alike, they just seemed happy to be there.

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus setlist