They haven’t played a show since 2012, but everyone’s favorite hair-forward, turn-of-the-millennium post-hardcore act is back. Again. At the Drive-In are confirmed to play Columbus, Ohio’s tenth annual Rock on the Range festival, which takes place May 20-22, 2016.
As Consequence of Sound notes, the reunion — ATDI’s second, after an initial split in 2001 and a string of festival dates in 2012 — follows the breakup of frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s prog-rock band The Mars Volta in 2013. Also, um, NME observes that it’s unclear whether guitarist Jim Ward will be part of the Rock on the act’s Range lineup. In a post published last night, the El Paso Times’ Dave Acosta wrote that when he asked Ward about the possibility of an ATDI reunion a few weeks ago, the musician simply said, “Let me know what you hear.” And it doesn’t sound like he was just being coy. After the Rock on the Range announcement went out, Acosta says he “called Ward, and he seemed rather surprised, too. Ward said he knew that the band had been listed among performers at the festival, but added that he could neither confirm nor deny whether ATDI would actually be performing at this time.”
Welp. The bad news is that this hint of poor communication within ATDI isn’t exactly shocking; intra-band tension played a part in both the band’s initial split and its brief reunion. The good news is that, no matter how many times they break up and reunite, At the Drive-In are sure to remain one of music’s best live acts of the past two decades. No word yet on whether more tour dates are forthcoming, but let’s hope that if there are any, Jim Ward hears about them before we do.