To continue the “Artist and a Six Pack” series, we’ve decided to branch out a little at Backyard Road Trips. No more IPAs for this post, only sour (and sour-like beers). For this post, six emo bands match best with these six sours. Why sours and emo? Well, a few reasons. First, I enjoy sour beer and some emo, but both in moderation. This means I’ll enjoy a sour beer, but I can’t have multiple. The same thing with emo, I can listen to one album, but it can’t be an all-day marathon. Also, the word “sour” best describes many emo lyrics. Speaking of lyrics, some of the names of these sour beers sound like an emo band, album, or song name. Without further ado, emo and sour beer: a six pack.
Tree House Brewing Company– Passion Fruit and Hibiscus Tart with Saves the Day Stay What You Are
Tree House is one of those breweries that never strikes out. Although when visiting I typically opt for their beers closer to the IPA side of things, every lighter beer of theirs is right on. Their Eureka blonde ale is so good. The Passion Fruit and Hibiscus Tart is great too. There is an initial tart taste to this beer, but it mellows into a wheaty finish. It stays dry throughout and pours out a nice red color.
It pairs well with Saves the Day’s Stay What You Are. This album was the soundtrack to my freshman year of college. Whereas much emo is more like a period piece, this album stands up well almost 20 years later. (Even though the lyrics are a little darker than my typical musical fare these days). Just like the beer, the sourness starts off the bat with the track “At Your Funeral,” hard to get darker than that. But the album overall is poppy with catchy hooks heard in tracks like “Cars and Calories,” similar to the easy drinkability of this beer. The vivid hue of the Tart beer is just like the descriptive lyrics that permeate this album. Granted lyrics like “I’ll go walking in the streets until my heels bleed” from “Freakish” and “I’d drink your blood, feel it dripping down my throat” from “As Your Ghost Takes Flight” are certainly the definition of emo, they completely gel with the sourness of this beer!
Fox Farm Brewery- Freckled Fields with Alkaline Trio From Here to Infirmary
I like Alkaline Trio, and they also still hold up many years later but there is a whine factor to them. Just like this beer, Freckled Fields has a strong wine factor to it. It is very dry with a hint of tartness. It’s actually not a sour, but a farmhouse ale. As your palette adapts to the beer, the taste smooths out. To me, it is more reminiscent of wine than beer at all.
Much of Alkaline Trio’s catalog certainly fit the emo bill bringing the whine. They also bring the sour as well with song titles such as “Bloodied Up” and “Maybe I’ll Catch Fire.” They also have numerous alcohol references in the album From Here to Infirmary including the track “Takes Lots with Alcohol” and “Bloodied Up” with the lyrics “never had a drink that I didn’t like.” Given the wine/whine factor and the references to alcohol in Alkaline Trio’s lyrics, it’s a match made in 2001.
Widowmaker Brewing– Sstainless 004 with Key Lime, Graham Cracker, and Coconut with The Impossibles – The Return of the Impossibles
Widowmaker brews some of the best beer in Massachusetts. The Impossibles are my favorite band out of the emo era. Commonality? Both underdogs, not as well known as others in each genre. Also, The Impossibles are not quite emo, and this Widowmaker is not quite a sour, not quite an IPA. The Sstainless 004 is branded as a key lime milkshake IPA, but it’s not going to satiate pure hop heads. It’s smooth, tart, and mellow all at the same time. It starts off with a sharp taste at first and mellows as it progresses. It is somewhere between an IPA and a sour.
The Impossibles are not blatantly emo at all. Actually, they were closer to the ska at the beginning. The Return of the Impossibles has them ditch the ska and with a sound somewhere between emo and Weezer. (Pictured is the Four Song Brick Bomb ep; the cover to my Return album was at home in CT.) Speaking of CT, of course, one of my favorite tracks is “Connecticut.” In high school (living in CT), I saw these guys twice. The first time, opening for the much bigger bands Less Than Jake and A New Found Glory, they blew those two groups out of the water. I immediately dialed up my internet and ordered their whole discography (of two albums). But just like this beer, they are somewhere between genres. Check out a 2002 concert film here.
Four Quarters Brewing– You are Every Lovely Thing I Could Possibly Think Of with BoySetsFire – After the Eulogy
Okay, first of all, the name of this beer from Four Quarters sounds like the title of an emo song. Although BoySetsFire may be classified to some as “post-hardcore” with their driving melodies and emotive lyrics, it sounds like emo to me. As bombastic as some song titles off this album such as “The Abominations of Those Virtuous” and “Our Time Honored Tradition of Cannibalism,” this beer fits right at home, albeit more positive sounding.
The beer itself is a sour whose tartness dissipates quickly. The tastes of the passionfruit and the guava both come through in the flavor profile. The sourness of this album doesn’t dissipate though. My choice track is “Rookie.”
Lost Shoe Brewing Company– Galoshes of Plenty with The Anniversary Designing a Nervous Breakdown
Lost Shoe’s Galoshes of Plenty is a rotating sour/Berliner Weiss series. This one has blueberry, strawberry, blackberry, graham cracker, and brown sugar. There’s a lot going on here. The Anniversary, for an emo band, also has a lot going on, especially with their use of the keyboard, Moog, and harmonies in many of the tracks on this album. One of my favorites is “D in Detroit.”
In both cases, the beer and the album, although packed with many ingredients, work well. The beer starts as slightly sour but fades into dryness with a fruit finish. The taste gets richer and more complex as the beer is drunk. The brown sugar and graham cracker shine through in both taste and smell. The Anniversary is similar. They are more complicated than many four-chord emo groups. The harmonies, different instrumentation, and the song structures make them stand out from the pack, just like Galoshes of Plenty.
Trillium Brewing Company– Dogtooth Violet with Dashboard Confessional The Places You Have Come To Fear the Most
To finish our Emo and Sour Beer we will end with two of the more well known of their genres, Trillium Brewing Company and Dashboard Confessional. Although Trillium is known for its juicy IPAs and robust stouts, they brew a fantastic line of sours and wild ales. The Dogtooth Violet is actually an American wild ale, not a sour. At first taste though, there is an initial sourness to it, but it ends on a bitter note, and stays dry the whole time.
This is similar to Dashboard, where many of the songs on this album such as “Screaming Infidelities” and “This Bitter Pill” also end on a bitter note. Actually, “This Bitter Pill” ends with literal wailing by the lead singer. Talk about a song for crying in your beer! Nevertheless, Dashboard Confessional and Trillium make an outstanding one-two punch.
From Kenny Rogers, Kenny G, the J. Geils Band, and now, emo and sour beer, Backyard Road Trips has a beer for ‘em all. Cheers!
