In Memoriam to My Emo Years

A meandering essay about the emo music of my teenage years in New Jersey.

Note: This story was updated to its book version in October 2023.

The show was on April 30, 2010. I know that because, not wanting to go alone, I had posted about it on Facebook. It had been years since I’d seen The Early November, but I’d kept up with Ace Enders, the band’s frontman. So when he announced he was playing a solo show that night at Ramapo C…