Chicago was in good spirits a couple weekends ago — unseasonably warm and heading into a Full Moon eclipse. The elder emos were out in full force, making their way to River North for armorforsleep’s anniversary tour stop. We gathered at the House of Blues, one of frontman Ben Jorgensen’s favorite venues, to celebrate 20 years of “What to Do When You Are Dead”—an album that became a rite of passage for any early 2000s kid who knew what it meant to drown in their sorrow 🫂 A concept album that wrestles with the transition between life and death, “What to Do When You Are Dead” encapsulates the rawest depths of heartache and the sort of perpetual grief that lingers like a ghost, even after crossing over to the other side. Midway through the set, Ben pauses to reflect on what he was going through while writing the album, a time in life when he didn’t want to be here anymore. The crowd, a sea of nostalgia and lived experience responds by singing every lyric back to him, word for word 🙂‍↕️ ...