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"I want something else to get me through this" is the linchpin of the chorus in "Semi-Charmed Life," the most popular song the '90s band Third Eye Blind has ever created. The jaunty track is about the allure of crystal meth addiction and the itchy desperation of desiring an escape.
And on Tuesday night, Third Eye Blind inflicted a similar kind of distress at the Republican National Convention during an after-party, surprising guests with messages of gay rights and science and serenading them with some of the band’s more obscure songs, while withholding the most popular song in their discography.
Here’s a scene from the concert:
Third Eye Blind tonite at #RNCinCLE event: We believe in tolerance, acceptance (Followed by boos) pic.twitter.com/WPRIEMZmEp
— Tina (@tinpant) July 20, 2016
The crowd was not pleased, but Third Eye Blind didn’t care. "You can boo all you want, but I'm the motherfucking artist up here," lead singer Stephan Jenkins said.
Jenkins and Third Eye Blind were performing at a concert hosted by the Recording Industry Association of America and AT&T — a special event for the convention-goers and GOP allies. But Jenkins and the band are apparently not fans of Trump and his policies (Jenkins wrote a piece for the Huffington Post in 2012 about how Republicans are the wrong side of history and policy), so they decided to stage a rebellion.
They used their time onstage to give the musical equivalent of a middle finger by sticking to their less popular songs, mixed in with questions to the crowd like, "Who believes in science?"
Epic @ThirdEyeBlind troll of RNC event. Played none of the hits, bashed GOP platform, asked "Who here believes in science?" So much booing.
— Peter Hamby (@PeterHamby) July 20, 2016
Concert-goers were no doubt upset that they were lambasted by talk of science and tolerance instead of getting to hear "Semi-Charmed Life."
@LWhiteGRLprob good
— Third Eye Blind (@ThirdEyeBlind) July 20, 2016
The band showed no remorse — though, for what it’s worth, it appears they eventually did play "Jumper," another of their hit songs, which is about talking someone back from the brink of suicide.