COLUMN: Joe Calixto of APPERSON Reflects On Opening For THE GET UP KIDS [USA]

Photo Credit: Angel Mejia

“This small win of ours goes out to every Filipino, every Asian, every POC, every LGBTQ+ person out there who’s ever wanted to play music and rock out with their idols. If this lot can get that, y’all fersure can! I wave that flag with everything I do.”

Many of us who play in bands will find themselves in interesting situations…none better than the opportunity to open for a band that has meant a lot for them. For us, it’s been noted probably a thousand times, opening, touring and organizing shows for Sick of it All was that moment. Most recently, we got to relive this experience because our London-based band KING STREET opened for Madball. All these moments about meeting your “heroes” are always full of the most insane experiences…a lot of it is with trepidation hoping that these people you’ve unfortunately placed on a high pedestal turn out to be cool and down to earth. And when they are, dang – that sigh of relief is the best feeling.

When our good friend, Joe Calixto, LA-based photographer/guitarist vocalist of APPERSON, mentioned that his band had been slated to open for THE GET UP KIDS and how important that was to him, we knew we had to hit him up to see if he was interested in capturing all those emotions.

The following is his amazing reflection on this entire experience…

This night was truly something to write home about. If you told 17 year old me that I was gonna be opening for The Get Up Kids in 2025, I would’ve called you a big fat liar. But here we are 22 years later and the band I’m in (Apperson) just played a sold out show at such a legendary venue with TGUK celebrating 25 years of a record that meant so much to me and my bandmates growing up.

Photo Credit: Joe Calixto

Full transparency, for those who don’t know, I (Joe) started working for the Get Up Kids as their touring photographer in the summer of 2024 and that alone was already a dream come true for me. Anyways, I got to know the guys in band quite well and you know when people say “don’t meet your idols” well, I’m glad I did coz they’re all incredible people. Took me in their crew with open arms.

So half way through the first leg of the tour, they offered me to go on the second leg which started late January 2025. Obviously, I wasn’t gonna say no to a TGUK tour for obvious reasons and when I got the routing they were gonna end the second leg of the North American tour with 2 nights in my home state of California not too far from where I live at a town called Pomona. So I was hyped.

These Pomona shows were basically “one off” shows since the tour actually ends a week prior in their hometown of Kansas City. They did these shows coz on the first leg, they sold out 3 nights in LA so fast and the demand was so crazy that they decided to do these shows to make up to the people who weren’t able to catch them then.

“Rob, who plays bass, asked me if I knew any LA bands who would be cool to hop on those California shows and I “jokingly” said “you should let my band open””…

So we had a break halfway through the first leg, and I went home and Apperson had a show during that break. So like any normal human, I was posting videos from that show in my IG stories. So when I got back on tour the guys were like “Joe, you’re in a band too? What don’t you do?!” (Lol) I guess that’s where the seed was planted.

Anyway, enough of the boring stuff. So the months leading up to show, Rob, who plays bass, asked me if I knew any LA bands who would be cool to hop on those California shows and I “jokingly” said “you should let my band open” and I got hit back with a “that’s actually not a bad idea” text.

Obviously, I was thinking “oh no what have I done!” coz we’re (1) a band no one knows and (2) we don’t really play many shows. We’re just doing this band for fun. So when the guys told me that they were gonna have us open the final California show, I was absolutely freaking out. So yeah, call it nepotism (lol) or maybe the guys really just believed in giving a small band like us a chance. Who knows?!

But yeah, all jokes aside, when the day of the show arrived, waves of different emotions started to hit me fersure. It’s really not everyday that you wake up and get to play a show opening for a band that you’ve looked up to for years (and I’d even say, have molded my taste in music, even as a kid who grew up in hardcore, to what it is now).

That was definitely the biggest show Apperson has ever played and being on that stage, all I can think about is, if 10 people out of the 800 people there liked my band, I’d be so happy. The reception was awesome and hearing praises from random people, my family and friends, and The Get Up Kids themselves, both 17 year old and 39 year old me was ecstatic.

Apperson is just 5 Filipinos who have 60 monthly listeners on Spotify and just love to jam and hang out and play house shows with friends. And that’s still us, but we also just played an insane show to a whole lot of people and that warmed our hearts so much.

I said this on instagram the other day but this small win of ours goes out to every Filipino, every Asian, every POC, every LGBTQ+ person out there who’s ever wanted to play music and rock out with their idols. If this lot can get that, y’all fersure can! I wave that flag with everything I do.

I honestly hope some kid reads this and gets inspired to start a band and they get to play with their favorite bands.

TL;DR??

All I’m saying is, that show was an absolute movie. 10/10 would do it all over again.

Biggest love the Get Up Kids.

https://www.instagram.com/_appersonca/