BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — “Something Loud” — that’s Zach Lind’s favorite song to play this year.

The Jimmy Eat World drummer was hanging out at Buffalo’s Outer Harbor Friday afternoon, just hours before the band was set to take the stage on the penultimate stop of their co-headlining Amplified Echoes Tour with fellow rockers Manchester Orchestra.

The song’s title is no mistake either. The 2022 single is a perfect representation of the band’s fearless, aggressive sound, packed with tight, punchy rhythms, screaming guitars and vocals that blur the line between emo and alternative rock.

With the tour near its end, Lind, 47, says it’s a bittersweet feeling. It’s very much been an iron-sharpening-iron kind of experience in his eyes, with the drummer giving high praise to Jimmy Eat World’s co-headliner, as well as openers Middle Kids — two groups he says are great live.

The bands are keeping each other on their A-game, with Lind saying that “in order to play the show, you’ve got to rise to the level of the other bands.”

All-in-all, Lind said “the tour’s been amazing,” noting that it’s not just what’s been brought to the stage, but behind the scenes, too.

After the Buffalo show, they’re even hoping to embrace that camaraderie with a big grill-out as the bands’ end-of-tour bash together. Lind even has a grill he brings with him.

As part of Jimmy Eat World, Lind said he’s been to Buffalo more than a dozen times, but his history with the Queen City runs even deeper.

“I came here a lot as a kid ’cause my dad used to work for the Pittsburgh Pirates,” Lind said. The MLB team had an affiliation with the Buffalo Bisons between 1979 and 1982, and again from 1988 to 1994.

Lind has hit up numerous wing spots in the city, Anchor Bar and Gabriel’s Gate included, and has been taking his family to Buffalo for years.

“The wings have always been great here,” he said. “I’m a huge wings fan so that’s one of the things I’m most excited about is trying out new places.”

Seeing different cities and being able to interact with fans are Lind’s other favorite parts of touring, and the Buffalo fans are a sea of welcoming faces for him.

“The fans are always amazing here. They’re always a little bit more rowdy here…It always seems like people want to have fun,” he said.

Jimmy Eat World has been everywhere over their 30 years as a band and had a lot of success rocking stages across the globe. But one of their first big hits (and the album of the same name) had to undergo some changes following one of the most tragic events in our nation’s history.

The album, released in the summer of 2001, was called Bleed American, and prior to the events of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was promoted with a single bearing the same name. Lind says that following the attacks, the single was pulled from the radio and the album title was changed.

As of today, the song “Bleed American” has been played more than 88 million times on Spotify, but the album’s biggest hit was a song that may have brought hope to a grieving country — “The Middle,” which boasts an impressive 747 million-plus plays.

When these songs first reached the ears of the world, CDs were still the power player in the industry of music sales. The album was a huge success by that standard, too, reaching Platinum status the following year.

A lot has changed since Jimmy Eat World first became a band in 1993, the switch from CDs to streaming included.

“The lack of like, physical sales, more of a digitization of the music, has really affected the way that the music industry operates,” Lind said. “There’s been some good to it, there’s been some bad to it.”

For Lind, it puts even more emphasis on the importance of playing live, which he believes is probably the most lucrative way for a musician to make money nowadays. It can be exhausting, but tons of fun, regardless.

“Looking forward to seeing everyone out here tonight,” Lind said of the Buffalo show.

Tickets for Jimmy Eat World’s Friday show with Manchester Orchestra and Middle Kids are still available and can be purchased here. The parking lot opens at 4 p.m., with doors opening an hour later.