Jimmy Eat World, Download Festival 2025 REVIEW: Jim Adkins is having the loveliest time right now. There’s a mix of total contentment and humbled appreciation plastered across his face as he looks out from the Apex Stage, Jimmy Eat World’s first experience of the Download atmosphere in 12 years. It’s an atmosphere that grows increasingly jubilant with every song the band pull out of the hat, a true collection of emo blueprints. There’s a formidable ‘Futures’ and a jagged ‘Bleed American’, a heartfelt ‘Big Casino’ and a groove-laden ‘My Best Theory’, making up a breakneck trip through years of immaculate and insatiable songwriting that has captivated and comforted in equal measure. And that’s all before a unifying ‘The Middle’, as eternal a song as there is sewn into the fabric of this scene, receives one of the loudest sing-alongs that will be heard all weekend. It all equates to one of the most perfect hours of music you’ll likely experience, as life-affirming as it comes. Jim Adki...