The Gin Blossoms Are Not Here for Your Shit

When the Phoenix Suns played the Denver Nuggets during the Western Conference Semifinals, they invited the Mesa, Arizona band Jimmy Eat World to play a two-song set at halftime. “[W]hen the Suns are firing on all cylinders, this becomes a Suns town like no other in comparison to the other organizations in town,” drummer Zach Lind told Arizona Sports. “There’s just something about it that lights the city on fire.” 

So after sweeping the Nuggets in four games, the Suns kept the local music vibe going into the Western Conference Finals. Last night, Tempe alt-rockers The Gin Blossoms set up at halftime and ran through two songs—“Hey Jealousy” and “I’ll Follow You Down”—that everyone absolutely knows the words to. 

That should’ve been the beginning, middle, and end of the story. We should be talking about Deandre Ayton’s last second dunk today, the at-the-buzzer winner that gave the Suns a 2-0 jump on the Los Angeles Clippers, but instead, we’re still talking about the Gin Blossoms, and it’s all because of fucking Twitter. 

This all started when the band tweeted to ask who was going to last night’s game. “We’re honored to be playing at halftime,” they typed, and their @s were all from fans who thought it was dope, from people who referenced song lyrics, or from locals who just wished they had tickets. 

Thirty-five of the 36 quote tweets—even the one written in Croatian—were supportive. The one outlier was from somebody in Denver who called the Gin Blossoms “the third shittiest band ever.” What @VicFang1o could’ve said was nothing. He could’ve scrolled right past the Gin Blossoms’ tweet and gone on with his life, and nobody would have to read this paragraph right now. But the Gin Blossoms played along, responding to ask “who did your Nuggets book for tonight?” 

The answer is clearly ‘no one,’ which is the same number of people who have backed up the guy who went after the Gin Blossoms. He kept trying though, like Charlie Brown if he realized he was never going to kick the football so he decided to be a dick instead. “This @nuggets season is now about as relevant as the Gin Blossoms tbh,” he wrote. The Gin Blossoms said that they were playing “one more game of the Western Conference Finals than the Nuggets.” 

Nuggets Bro kept going. “Just think if it were 1994 you could’ve clapped back about your album sales or something,” he wrote. The Gin Blossoms still hit him with Suns Facts, responding that even in 1994, the Suns finished ahead of the Nuggets. Then dude pivoted again, to say that the band “must be in rough shape” if they had the time to respond to a Twitter troll. The Gin Blossoms shrugged that right off, writing that “the royalty checks keep cashing.” (They also added a pic of the ‘Suns in 4’ guy, who wrecked two Nuggets fans who tried to sucker punch him in the stands during the Western Conference Semifinals.)

Honestly, if you’re going to be an absolute jerk on Twitter, why go after the Gin Blossoms, of all people? They’ve not done anything except release one classic alt-rock record (New Miserable Experience) and at least a half-dozen songs that still slap. They’ve broken up once, have endured personal tragedies, and have responded by continuing to write songs—their most recent release, Mixed Reality, came out in 2018—and relentlessly touring from one side of the country to the other. (Last year was an exception, obviously, but their schedule for the next four months covers 16 states.) 

Also, shout-out to the band for not getting personal with some rando who called them ‘shitty’ and tried to drag their music. Their clapbacks were all NBA-related, which honestly takes inhuman amounts of self-restraint. (VICE has reached out to the band for comment, but we have not yet received a response.)

Despite getting absolutely owned by the last band that he tried to insult, that Twitter Guy is still going. “Train is easily the worst band ever,” he wrote. 

For fuck’s sake. Get him, Train.