Synopsis

The Get Up Kids' "Action & Action" video presents the band in a deliberately goofy, low-budget performance setting, mixing energetic playing with staged scenes involving women and exaggerated visual business. Rather than following a tightly plotted story, the clip leans into the band's youthful awkwardness and the song's themes of self-consciousness, exposure, and learning from mistakes. Its loose, playful approach makes the group look less like polished rock stars than friends having fun with their first real opportunity to appear on camera.

Factoids & Trivia

• "Action & Action" was The Get Up Kids' first music video. Guitarist Jim Suptic later recalled that the band had a good time making it, even though some members were more comfortable acting than others.

• Suptic also remembered that the original concept included "cute girls," a decision he viewed with amused hindsight years later.

• The video was released in December 1999, shortly after "Something to Write Home About" arrived. The song was later issued as a single in 2000.

• Exposure on MTV2's "120 Minutes" helped bring the Kansas City band to a wider audience during the breakthrough period for "Something to Write Home About."

• The clip was remastered in 4K and reissued online in 2024 for the album's 25th-anniversary edition.

• The song's lyrics focus on overexposure, mistakes, outside pressure, and the process of becoming more resilient. The video's intentionally unpolished presentation contrasts with the idea of a band suddenly being pushed into a larger spotlight.

• "Action & Action" became one of the defining songs from "Something to Write Home About," an album widely associated with the expansion of second-wave emo beyond its original underground audience.