Posts Tagged ‘at the drive-in’
At the drive-in – Retrospective
“We are not a Hardcore band” When I saw At the Drive-In in Bremen, Germany in 2001 at what soon after turned out to be their second to last show ever I was convinced – if only for a split second – that this band had the potential to kick-start a new era for popular music, like I had only seen Nirvana do it before them…
Rewind a couple of years… In late 1998 or early 1999 a promotional copy of “In Casino Out” found its way into my home sweet home. It was probably part of a stack of discs that I reviewed for “Trust” zine in Germany, I don’t remember exactly. What I do remember are the raised eyebrows that it caused after the first spin, and after the second, and after the third… and after the twentieth. Holy motherfucking diamond in the rough! This record was basically every reviewer’s wet dream a.k.a. an album that was actually good. No, it was unbelievably good, something one only comes across every five years, maybe! Long discussions followed with friends and fellow writers about how this band is probably going nowhere and how this album will be completely overlooked by anybody remotely into emotionally and melodically charged high voltage outbursts. Simply because “In Casino Out” was released on Fearless Records, which was not exactly a name many had on their radar when it came to music like At the Drive-In’s. I think it’s safe to say that at that time labels like No Idea, Doghouse, Initial, Revelation or even Burning Heart drew the most attention for this type of music. Well, history has proven me wrong once again. The word about At the Drive-In spread like wildfire, especially after their first European tour in the spring of 1999 during which I got to catch them at UJZ Kornstrasse in Hannover, Germany. It was basically an experience similar to listening to “In Casino Out” for the first time. Their explosive energy blew every other band of their time out of the water, in the studio and onstage. Of course, I like an idiot, was going through one of my moods again where I didn’t want to burden myself with bringing a camera. Naturally this always happened on key nights that one really ends up regretting, like when The Murder City Devils played at the Au in Frankfurt, Germany. But that’s a different story.
