They released one album in high school. 30 years later, they sold out SF.

"When the drums kick in on "Basil's Kite," singer Tim Kinsella, who is either moderately drunk or just extremely loose, immediately dives into the crowd. Suddenly, five crowd-surfers are joining him, their gum-soled shoes pointing upward like lopsided lightning rods. Kinsella, kept afloat by a small forest of his fans' arms, throws back his head as he howls the words."

"Blink, and Kinsella's back onstage, blowing a few lousy notes out of a beat-up French horn. Blink again, and that French horn is being passed around the audience. By the second track, the audience is chanting the first half of the alphabet in unison. (It's part of the song.) Kinsella wrote these songs as a teenager. Three decades later, the Great American Music Hall is crammed with fans young enough to pass as his children, singing along to every word."

Within minutes of a show, Tim Kinsella dives into the crowd during "Basil's Kite," is crowd-surfed by multiple fans, then returns onstage playing a beat-up French horn that circulates through the audience. By the second song, fans chant the alphabet in unison. Kinsella wrote the songs as a teenager, and decades later audiences still sing every word. Cap'n Jazz helped propel Midwest emo and earned a seminal reputation. The band centers on Tim and younger brother Mike Kinsella, who began the group as a teen in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. The music is frenetic, odd-metered, and propelled by chiming guitar lines.

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