20 years of tears: Hawthorne Heights revisits its first album on current tour

After 20 years of music, Hawthorne Heights is taking it back to where it all began two decades ago.

The Emo band from Ohio, will be playing its first album, “The Silence in Black and White,” in its entirety on the 20 Years of Tears Tour, which makes a stop at Revel Entertainment, 4720 Alexander Blvd. NE, on Monday, Sept. 2. Hawthorne Heights will be joined by Saosin, Anberlin, Cartel, Stick to Your Guns and This Wild Life.

“For this one, specifically, we’re playing our first album, ‘The Silence in Black and White,’ “ said J.T. Woodruff, Hawthorne Heights guitarist. “The set list is actually very easy. We don’t have to argue. We don’t have to choose. We just go up there and play the record and we’ll play a couple other songs as well.”

He said it has been “cool” to dig into the songs and realize why they were written and what the fans like about the songs.

“Emo doesn’t die, which is awesome,” Woodruff said. “When we first started playing shows, the only idea was that you wanted to play more shows, not that you wanted to become some sort of like 20 year critical darling.”

Woodruff said in the beginning it was mostly about playing as many shows possible and now the band has returned to that same goal.

“What our main path was for this year was to try and see if we can hold to that same ethos, which was try to play as many shows as we can in as many different places as we can, to really just continue to spread these songs around, even though it’s been 20 years,” he explained.

Woodruff said many people have come up the band saying they have never seen Hawthorne Heights before.

“We have 15- year-olds coming to the shows for the first time and we’re like, how do you even know who we are?,” he explained. “All these new groups of bands, kind of list us as people that they listen to, to kind of form their band. It’s really cool (coming) full circle. (It’s a) weird moment. It doesn’t happen to very many people. And we are just so appreciative if anybody cares at all, 20 years later.”

Revisiting music from 20 years ago has been a nostalgic journey that involves some critique from the band.

“It’s like getting back behind the wheel of your your first car when you turn 16-years-old,” Woodruff said. “I think it’s really easy to be self critical when you’re in a band, especially when it’s your first record. So a year later, you’re thinking, man, we could have done so much better, because you’re a better musician at that point. And now, you think the reverse of it, because your fans have consistently told you for 20 years that this is an album that they love.”

He said in hindsight if the band had attempted to make the music better that it might have instead made the music worse.

“Maybe some of the magic of it is that you had no idea what the hell you were doing and then you were just kind of playing stuff that you loved,” Woodruff explained. “You weren’t trying to have any success with it. You weren’t trying to write a hit song. You were just trying to write out your emotions. I think it’s cool because we need to look back honorably on it instead of wondering what would have happened, should we change something or if we had more time creating it.”

Woodruff said the band looks forward to returning to Albuquerque and added it is one of the band’s favorite areas in the country.

“We always have a great time in the desert,” he said. “We always have a great time just being in Albuquerque in general, so we are truly excited about it. We’ve probably played there 10 or 15 times in our career and it’s always been awesome.”