Eight Second Wave Emo Bands Answer Our Burning Emo Questions

Last month’s Best Friends Forever festival brought some of the best underground rock bands of the ’90s — and the emerging acts carrying their spirit forward — to downtown Las Vegas. The lineup had a unique focus on second wave emo groups, some of whom hadn’t performed in many years. (You can read our recap of the weekend here.) With so many heroes of a very specific subgenre on-hand, we decided to interview only the second wave emo bands while we were there. And, for the following supercut videos, we asked American Football, the Anniversary, Braid, Everyone Asked About You, the Get Up Kids, Hot Rod Circuit, Piebald, and Rainer Maria all the same questions. Mostly we planned to ask about midwest emo, but Brat And It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat dropped on the first day of the festival, so…

What’s it like being called “emo” in 2024?

What’s the best emo album of all time?

Who are your favorite new bands?

Fill in the blank: “It was just Brat Summer. Now it’s [blank] fall.”