At The Drive In, Death From Above 1979 - Institute - March 12, 2018

The original reunion tour of the unlikely reunion of At the Drive In got serious interest but a new album tour seems to have attracted far less attention, given the ticket deals and eventual downsizing of the venue. It was still busy but not to capacity. The five of them took to the stage, originals besides a swapped out Jim Ward (backing vocals, guitar, Sparta) and launched into it. I’d like to say that the whole room kicked off but the truth is it was a limited response. Things did build as I moved up into the pit by the second or third tune. The set list was well crafted, playing a couple new ones from the decent Interalia (2017) but more importantly a good selection of the old songs that we’d come here for ("we", the thirty-somethings whose youth was spent downloading Relationship of Command from Kazaa song by song, drawing our allegiances to the various ATDI offshoots on internet message boards.) Napoleon Solo got the pit moving early, while everyone’s favourite One Armed Scissor was unceremoniously played just past the halfway point. I was pleased for a live rendition of Invalid Litter Dept. even if Cedric Bixler did adjust the vocal tempo at times. Still under his signature Afro, albeit a rather thinned out one, he was doing his best to play the outrageous frontman and belie his age and shape; heel-kicking the mic, stomping the custom stand, flinging the cable. He did put on quite a performance. It was Omar Rodriguez-Lopez that I was interested in most though and so I worked my way through the pit to be lined up in front of him. Despite the askew hat he wasn’t particularly showy, mind you his playing speaks for itself. Without needing to ham it up his guitar work was still stellar and great to see live. They returned to encore despite a mediocre call for one and pleased most with Pattern Against User. For this olden day fan it pushed the right buttons, maybe not jamming them all simultaneously but was satisfying nonetheless.

Death From Above 1979

With the Physical World, DFA's "comeback" album it took a live rendition to properly drive the songs home and make me fully realise them. Jesse and Seb's performance of the follow-up, Outrage is Now!, was unable to do the same, in fact pushing the latest tunes further from my heart. Granted they were an opening band probably well-tired of their now 13 year old debut but to only play one song, a deeper cut at that in Goin' Steady, is a bit of a snub to fans. While album one got one song, album two only had two, meaning this lacklustre show was primarily new material. Although not awful it made for an underwhelming set that long-time fans would be ultimately disappointed in.