Wisecracking aside, lots of really excellent things have come out of Jersey.* Things like Bruce Springsteen and Zach Braff and the Wrens. This weekend, the Wrens will be wrapping up what has been a four-year, weekends-only tour of the country, supporting their album the Meadowlands. But, the boys in the band will be taking a breather only after playing Emo's this Friday night.

The four-year tour might seem a bit excessive, but it came at the end of what had become an extremely lengthy hiatus. After the band released their 1996 sophomore album Secaucus to critical acclaim, Alan Metzer (yes, the man who made Creed) tossed them off the label. So, for 7 years, audiences either waited patiently for the follow up or forgot the band entirely. When the Wrens finally produced another record, though, it was the Meadowlands, an album perhaps better referred to as "a heartbreaking work of staggering genius" than anything Dave Eggers has ever written (not to totally diss Eggers, but this album is beyond good). It's music for disappointed people who are sure it's going to work out later. And, despite that, it still rocks way more than it wails. It's an album so stirring it justifies a 7-year wait, and, a 4-year tour produced by a band that has managed what so few performers manage: to age gracefully without stagnating creatively.

The Wrens will be storming the trenches tomorrow night at Emo's. Seriously, get it while you can, because we know if we were just ending a 4-year tour, we wouldn't be planning on hitting the road again for a while.

the Wrens w/Get Him Eat Him/moonlight towers
Saturday, July 21
Emo's (outside)
Doors at 8 p.m., Show starts at 10 p.m.
Tickets $10 in advance

the Wrens [official]

*Hey, and it's 4th in eggplant production in the U.S. That has to count for something, to those of you who don't, like us, despise eggplant.

[Image courtesy the Wrens' web site. If, while in Austin, they manage to recreate that photo using the UT tower, we will buy each member of the band a drink. Seriously. They can even get crazy froufrou drinks with Cointreau or something in them.]