Keeping C2E2 Local with Lizzie Baumgartner and Brian Rowe of Emo Social Club

With C2E2 happening last weekend I took my time to steer away from the drama surrounding its owners, ReedPop, and instead decided to focus on the people building communities locally. The ones who use the venue to create safe spaces and explore how they can better their neighborhood. So this is the final of three interviews I like to call: Keeping C2E2 Local.

 Emo Social Club is a Chicago based movement created by Brian Rowe and Lizzie Baumgartner. It’s the who's who of local punk, pop punk, emo, screamo and everything in between. Lizzie and Brian are the curators of the local scene. Their forte is in promoting new acts while also interviewing the big names. From DJ sets, live streams, Youtube videos, podcasting, this group is really bringing together that early 2000’s community that still exists today in the underground. 

I'm Alex Orona with Third Coast Review, and with me is Lizzie Baumgartner and Brian Rowe. And you guys are with the Emo Social Club. 

Lizzie Baumgartner: Yes, we are the Emo Social Club. Founders, only members,  owners, content creators. 

Brian Rowe: We're tired, we're exhausted because we do it all ourselves. 

And also, it's been a long con. This is the third day, right? 

BR: Yeah, this is our first time doing a con. Comic-Con at all. First time C2E2 for me. I think you've been here before. 

LB: Yeah, I worked, I was doing an internship for Hope for the Day years ago, so I helped at their booths years ago. And I just never came back because I haven’t had a reason to come back. 

BR: And here we are doing a panel. We did a panel on Friday. We did a DJ night after that. And yeah, my first time doing all this. 

So I kind of know you guys because I saw the DJ set and it was fantastic, where you guys kind of go through the hits of... the what? 2000s and 2010s of the emo scene, rock , pop punk and whatnot. So what else is attached to the emo social club as far as expanding out of that? 

LB: We have not only just... What we do DJ-wise, so we also have a residency with Emo Nite LA here in Chicago, first Friday of every month. We also are on idobi Radio, so every Monday night at 6 pm eastern, we are basically having our show, our podcast that's broadcasted nationally, internationally, allegedly. It's on an app. It's there. It's on a free app. People can download. It's on your phone. Wherever your phone goes, you can listen to it. The idobi Radio app. Download it. It's free. 

What is your podcast about? 

LB: Emo music. And what we also did when we first started this about eight years ago is that we wanted to be very embedded in community, which we don't see a lot within this circle, especially right now, with like the emo nostalgia boom and resurgence, there's not as much emphasis on community working on the DIY level, working within everybody else that's on that come up for the most part. So that's something we really stress and want to work within and towards. We obviously interview a lot of like larger acts as well, but we are people who go to local shows. We support people that we love and care about and want to see do really well in the Chicago scene. And it's very rare that you have seen, at least in my personal experience, with other content creators and podcasters and youtubers. 

BR: There’s also not a lot really on the  market in Chicago for this, like a lot of podcasts come out of LA, they come out of New York, there's a lot more opportunity there because a lot of artists come from those places, they live there, they're available, and we were like, we want to do that too, but we live in Chicago, where not a lot of these artists live.We both grew up as as music fans of different ages, because I'm almost like 10 years older than her, and it's our different perspectives on where the scene came from 20 years ago, where the scene is going, 20 years later, who are some new artists that are carrying it on, who are these bands that are really big, maybe people don't really know about. That aren't a My Chemical Romance, that aren't a Fall Out Boy. And we do a lot of that. Diving into the history we like, diving into records. When We Were Young did a full 2024 album play thing. So on our YouTube channel, we did a review of every record they played. We want to talk about the music we love, the music we love the records that influenced us, and we know that there's people out there who have the same experience with that. And we want to talk to them, and we want to have them in community with us to discuss these albums. To put more people on, you know, there's a band out there that really never got the fair shake they probably deserved, 20 years ago, who's finally being heard now. And we're like, cool, let's be the people that break that to new people.

We also discussed the reunion tours and scene nostalgia

BR: But now, you know, one band like that we know  The Academy Is. It took me a while to really get into them, but now they did the 20-year anniversary of Almost Here last year, and they had sold-out crowds, they did it at Riot Fest, and so many people were there, and I'm like... Yeah, I remember this record being big 20 years ago, but they haven't done anything for so long that, like, how do these new people know it? How do these kids know this music? But there's a whole new generation of people that came out and watched that. And it's, yeah, for us, it's like, oh, 20 years ago, this wasn't anything. It was big, but it wasn't that big. And now it's like, holy. We're watching all of these new people sing along to songs. That I'm like, yeah, I love it too. And we get to celebrate that not only with the band, but with the fans and everybody else. People on YouTube don't really listen to that because they didn't really watch our review of it. So if you want to go see our review of Almost Here by The Academy Is. Please go check out our YouTube channel and watch that video.

Oh, I definitely will because that's one of my favorite albums for sure. I do find it that The way I've kind of... expressed it is that we were one of, at least my generation, was one of the last generations to have nostalgia because we didn't have everything at our fingertips now everything being at your fingertips what's old is just something to listen to as opposed to it being like  remember everything because I have everything. I remember it. I remember it all. Oh, do you remember when we were listening to that really old album? What, last week? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. 

BR: There's a lot of people who are like, 'Oh, I haven't seen this album cover in like a decade.' I'm like, 'Yeah.' Don't look at it like once a week.

LB: Yeah, we posted something for From Under the Cork Tree for Fall Out Boy. Somebody said, 'Oh my god, I haven’t listened to this album in five years.' What do you mean? I spend this weekly.

BR: We listen to that all the time. 

And then there's still like, I always find it fun that people like funny to see people like, like my generation, at the best music. It's like that music still exists— it's just that there are new people, younger people, making the same music. If you like Led Zeppelin, you can find a band doing very similar to Led Zeppelin somewhere. 

LB: I mean, look at Greta Van Fleet. 

No, that's actually the thing I was thinking about was them!

LB: I think the biggest thing that when it comes to people saying, 'Oh, they don't, you know The oi boys aren't back in the garage.’ First of all, they are back in the garage. They're in the garage or they're in the basement or they're at their homie's apartment causing chaos. But it's still out there. That same scene that was really prevalent in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s and 2010s is still there. But people just don't either know where to look, or they don't care much to look. But then they complain about it. Where there's a lot of great acts that are up and coming, and they're doing the work, and if any I feel that they're really building off of, at least within the emo subculture, they're really building it up and having it accessible to high schoolers. Like i did when I was in high school, and, kids were in early college, and it is there, but I think the lack of visibility and acknowledgement of it from people who are in our generation, like I'm 31.There's even people that I know who say, 'Hey, I'm not listening to this because I don't really care much.' But then they're complaining about, and I said, 'Listen, you can either complain and listen, or you can just be quiet and listen to this other stuff.' But I'm always going to say, 'Here are these up-and-coming bands’ because I have a radio background and I'm very big on promoting those in the DIY scene and things of that nature too.

On Building Community

LB: Right, there's this one band and our friend, Safe Face.They sound like a modern My Chem, but they're doing it in such a different way and they're just so good— they're so underrated. 

BR: Yeah. I think that one of the big things for us, as far as the community and as far as putting these bands on is that there's so much more opportunity. Obviously a band like The Academy Is or a band like My Chem has this gigantic resurgence with new generations and there's so much more opportunity for all these bands from from 20 years ago 30 years ago or from last week to get seen through TikTok, through YouTube, through Instagram or whatever it is, that now there's just so much more noise. There's so many newer genres.There's all of these things. There's AI. And one of the big things with a lot of it is that. It's hard to break through the noise for an artist and I think that, from our end, we find ourselves in this place where we want to be the curators of it, we want to be the people that are saying, 'Here's a band worth your time. Here's somebody that we found out about, that we think more people need to know about.' And I think with the fact that  it is so gigantic, it's international. You know, a band can be found anywhere in the world. You know, they can have some of their biggest concerts in the Philippines or in Malaysia. It's like, yeah, of course, like you could do that. But there's a band that's from, you know, the suburbs here. It was like, 'Yeah, I'm just trying to make it.' It's like, 'Cool, let's make sure they know that this band exists’ because, maybe, they don't need to be heard in the Philippines, but maybe they need to be heard in Chicago. And maybe they need to get some shows at local venues here. And it's not about having this international audience, but at the very least we're hyper local, we're hyper focused on Chicago. We can at least put people on, in the city and they can get their fans here before they eventually, you know, become something else. 

And that's all on your podcast, YouTube..

BR: Instagram, TikTok, like we're just trying to make ends meet. 

LB: Yeah, we're trying to all do it on our own. Like, we're not funded by anyone. We are on a radio network, but we’re independent. Yeah. 

And then on your DJ sets, you're spinning the classics, you're spinning the hits, but you're also slipping in…

LB: Here and there when we can. The thing is, when we do emo night here, he DJs upstairs, which is like, you have to play the bangers or we found people get very upset about it. Yeah, downstairs, I do a little bit more like B-sides, and I can carry a little bit more. So I can slip in bands like Arm's Length, for example. But I can put on, like, my friends in Rematch or Action Adventure. And I think that's a big thing. People are sometimes into new, and some people aren't, and then they'll go online and say, 'I can't believe Emo Night plays like the same handful of songs.' Hey, when I play anything else, you get mad. I don't know what to do for you. 

BR: You're trying to please everybody. There are still the bands that... They want to be mad. Yeah, they want to be mad. First of all, if there's one thing emo kids love, it's complaining on the internet. They love going to Reddit pages and saying, 'this isn't Fifth Wave or whatever.' We're in the fifth wave. I don't know what that is. I refuse to learn, but there is discovery to it. However, dj sets are, you know, let's get everybody together and find community. Then maybe have those conversations with friends there!' There's this big tour of, uh, I think Arm's Length is opening for Coheed in Cambria. It's like we don't even play Coheed because people are like, 'That's a seven-minute-long song.' But then it's like, 'Oh, but they're going on this big tour, and oh, you should check out Arm's Length, who's opening for Coheed.' So there's still that chance. It's just maybe, let's bring everybody in on the songs that we all know and love. Everybody in on the songs we can sing along to. Then, because we're all happy hanging out,, 'Oh Yo!' Like, go check out this other band, and then go check out the band that's opening for them on this tour. It becomes a big community of growing people through having conversations and all that stuff. 

On Artist Discoverability

BR: We've seen them a lot of times. At this point, I've seen Hawthorne Heights more in my life. Like in the last two years, I've seen Hawthorne Heights more than I ever have in my entire life. Wow. It's been great. It's been great for me. That's one of her favorite bands. So we always reach out and we're like, 'Hey, we'd love to come and hang out and do an interview, whatever we can.' But then it's like, 'Oh, they're going on a tour with Let Live, one of my favorite bands from back in the day, and Creeper, one of her favorite bands.' And I said, 'Oh, let's go.' And I absolutely adored it. Creeper’s set. I was having such a blast listening to it and that's how we discovered music back in the day. Now it's like, let's tell you about that on the internet so that you can learn it before you go and show up just for Hawthorne Heights, like no, come a little bit early. 

We used to get samplers. I found so many bands just from a sampler CD. It's like, oh, it's 20 tracks. And I'm like, oh, track three, track five. I'm going to look these artists up. Let's rip it. 

LB: Well, I used to be in college radio, so I would curate hyper-local for my own local radio show, but I would also be programming new music that was coming out. So I had the first sampler of Code Orange Kids before they dropped the kids and worked for Code Orange. And I just think about that because they blew up and then they just kind of stopped, which is crazy to me because they were so good. But that's also where I found Car Seat Headrest. And I rediscovered  AM Taxi because I did their record release. I booked Lucky Boy's Confusion in the Walters at, like, my college in the suburbs. Before they, you know, they've gotten a little bit more notoriety. So there's a lot there and I think music discovery is something I'm always super excited about because I love finding and hearing new stuff. And when I try to at least personally explain to other folks, they're kind of like, 'Oh, well, I don't do that. Or I don't have time.' Time, if you just want to put like a Spotify, yeah, you know, shuffle on and you can figure it out or and look things up. I mean, that's how anybody discovers things. It used to be, Twitter was the music industry. LinkedIn, everything went to shit. But that's just what it is now. And some folks can complain and it's a personal peeve of mine. I'm too old to do that. You're not too old. You're not too old. You can do whatever you want. It's just, you need to... 

People are still making music videos on YouTube. Like, you'll find an artist on there that's like, oh, he's got 10k views. That's not a lot. Like, I'm going to watch this. 

BR: Yeah. Shout out to my new favorite music video that just came out last year. We did an interview with Drop Dead Gorgeous, which is a band from the MySpace days. Warped Tour days, they put out a new song called 'Six Feet,' and the music video is so good. Go check it out. I don't want to spoil anything of it, but it's so good, and the song's great, the music video's great. I'm like, 'Oh, thank you.' God, like people are actually still making art with their music videos and it's not just this vehicle to create like 'Oh please please watch this please listen to the song' like no—they— they took time they took effort to create like an artistic expression. So yeah, go check that out. I don't want to spoil anything. 

LB: There's also a lot of social commentary, at least in that song, and there's a lot more of these bands that are getting much more politically vocal and active than we've seen in the last, probably, decade or so too. So that is also something to keep in mind. And there's, you know, right now in this political climate, right now, people are not super wanting to have those types of artists be vocal, but in this, like, DIY up-and-coming scene, a lot of them are. You need to have it. And again, we have a lot of friends, too, who are in more diverse groups as well. The Action Adventure, they're Chicago.They're full of black and brown folks, and we love them. And they're always like, 'Stop sleeping on us. Give us the space for it.' And it's been ever since a lot of things have been happening. Media and in the news, you've seen a lot of people either jump on a bandwagon for virtue signaling purposes—honestly— and then they drop it when it's no longer a prominent issue, which is something people don’t want to talk about in the scene. 

Where's a good way for music discovery, 

LB: I think Bandcamp, and even though Twitter's still a hell of a while, I still find a lot of bands that are on there and connect with a lot of them, too. I would just absolutely do that or even just go into like a spiral rabbit hole. Here's Spotify new music and just click, like, what's this like? What's this like? What's this like? I found like a bunch of bands that I sent over to him because we had to do some content. Thank you. And I'm like, hey, this band is insane. And they have like 2,000 listeners. And it sounds like early MySpace core days. No reason why they should not be more popular right now.

BR: Okay. Yeah, I mean, it is social media. That's the best way. I found some stuff through YouTube. I still find a lot through Instagram and TikTok. There's an artist called Lamb she's got this super viral song that all of the bands that you like, Ollie from Bring Me the Horizon commented on. I just saw that. Used the song to promote his clothing label Drop Dead. I'm like okay, this is still the way we're like. There are silly artists that we love that are curating and they're finding stuff with social media and then they're saying, 'I love this, I co-sign on this song. Social media is the easiest way I think that if bands are trying to get their stuff seen, there's a lot of resources out there and I would say make some cool stuff. Be unique, be interesting, and your music will come to the top. It will float to the top, and people will like it. There is still opportunity out there. The marketplace just got a lot more flooded because a lot of bands are trying to do it. But, uh, if your band is good and you want to make your art get seen, you can do it on TikTok. You just got to spend some time with it. 

Their DJ Sets

So you guys are doing sets at the subterranean, what days? 

BR: It's the first Friday of every month. There's a couple in there that are a little weird because of holidays and Lollapalooza and stuff. That is all through Emo Night, at Emo Night on everything (social media.)So you can follow them if you want to get all the dates of when we're doing Chicago. 

What's the times on that? 

BR: It's like 10 p. m. Or, you know what? No, come at doors. Come early for the opener, right? Come at 9. Starts at 9 p.m. 

On Why They Hate Raffles So Much

So then you have your show, your YouTube show, your podcast. I was asked to ask you, why do you hate raffles so much? 

BR: Yeah, so this is the thing. We used to be... She interned for this company that my old cover band was booked through. And they were like, 'Oh, we're doing these events, like we should do raffles every time. And I got real sick of doing these raffles because I had to do them myself. And I'm like, 'I'm busy. I'm in the band.' And then Lizzie came on and she was running the raffles because I'm like, 'Yeah, I'm not doing this any more.' And then, as soon as we could, I stopped doing the raffles and stuff. That was that— very much part of like this old company that I worked for. But it drove me crazy because it's like. Listen, I don't want to talk about ROI (Return on Investment) on a lot of things, but I'm like, what's the ROI on me running this raffle, man? I got to hand out tickets and stuff. You got to find the person. Find the person to do it. And announce it. We also have to post that. We do raffles, we just do them online now. I'm not doing 

LB: Yeah, it's just like too much. I mean, I used to work in radio promotions when I first started. And it's fun to do when you're trying to find an in and get your feet wet. But at a certain point, I'm like, I'm so tired of coordinating this. 

BR: But also, our friend asked us about a raffle , and I'm like, wait— we have a panel to promote for C2E2, like, why aren't we doing a raffle with the panel, like, you come, like, we'll go away, like, an album or something like that, or a comic, or something, yeah, I should have done it, there's something we could have partnered with,  you know, with our friends at a lot of pizza records or something like that, but now we know ahead of time other opportunities that we have, we did not prepare, which is also why we don't do raffles, because we'd have to prepare