Capitalizing On Melodrama ; Hawthorne Heights' Knack for Empathizing Appeals to Teens

Summary

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On select dates of Hawthorne Heights' current tour with punk pinups Fall Out Boy, which includes shows Saturday and next Sunday at Camden's Tweeter Center at the Waterfront, singer-guitarist JT Woodruff will call a few fans to join him by the microphone. These fans will be chosen from thousands who wrote to the quintet's online community, thisiswhoweare.org, confessed how they mistreated a boyfriend, girlfriend or best friend and wanted to make an arena- size apology. Woodruff will introduce them before launching into "Saying Sorry," their breezy single with the chorus, "Seeing you cry makes me feel like saying sorry."

Such theatrics would make it easy to sneer at the Dayton, Ohio- bred band for tugging at the most obvious of heartstrings. Turn up your nose if you will Hawthorne Heights has sold nearly 800,000 copies of its 2004 debut, "The Silence in Black and White," on independent Victory Records. The band's follow-up, "If Only You Were Lonely," released in late February, is No. 3 on Billboard's Hot Albums chart.

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Capitalizing On Melodrama ; Hawthorne Heights' Knack for Empathizing Appeals to Teens

Yet until recently, Hawthorne Heights was an anonymous Midwestern Everyband. Signed from an unsolicited demo (recorded between classes and convenience-store shifts) sent ...

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