As we noted last month, the fabled late-90s post-hardcore band At The Drive-In is reuniting in 2016. Today, the band shared two fun news nuggets: One, the list of tour dates they’ve booked so far this year, and Two, that in addition to the tour, the band will be releasing new music. The new tunes would be the first from the full lineup in 16 years, since their breakout (and final) LP, 2000’s Relationship of Command.
After their turn-of-the-century dissolution, At The Drive-In’s members spawned several projects, from the Jim Ward-fronted projects Sleepercar and Sparta to the experimental prog of The Mars Volta. Guitarist Jarrett Wrenn and bassist Kenny Hopper formed Crime in Choir with other NorCal-based musicians, including Death Grips’ Zach Hill. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler spent much of the subsequent decades bickering, working on solo projects in addition to the Mars Volta, then folding that band and starting a new one, Antemasque.
When the first tour dates were announced in December, Ward claimed ignorance, telling the El Paso Times‘ Dave Acosta to “Let me know what you hear,” when asked about the reunion. But his face is front-and-center on the band’s website along with Bixler and Rodriguez, so it appears that the main songwriters will be back for the new record. Even at the reunion performances back in 2012, they didn’t appear to like each other very much, so these sessions will either capture the tension that made those At The Drive-In records so spectacular, or it will implode gloriously.
Either way, we can’t wait.
At the Drive-In 2016 Tour Dates: 03/23 – Hollywood, CA @ Fonda Theatre 03/26 – Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street 03/27 – London, UK @ Roundhouse 03/29 – Paris, FR @ Le Trianon 03/30 – Cologne, DE @ Palladium 03/31 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg 04/01 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique 04/04 – Berlin, DE @ Columbiahalle 04/05 – Vienna, AT @ Vienna Arena 04/07 – Milan, IT @ Fabrique 04/08-09 – Lausanne, CH @ Impetus Festival 04/10 – Barcelona, ES @ Razzmatazz 05/13-15 – Atlanta, GA @ Shaky Knees Music Festival 05/17 – Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works 05/19 – Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre 05/20-22 – Columbus, OH @ Rock on the Range Music Festival 06/03 – San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield 06/05 – Portland, OR @ McMenamin’s Crystal Ballroom 06/07 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom 06/08 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox Sodo 06/11 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore 06/14 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club 06/17 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5 06/18 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues 06/21 – Detroit, MI @ St. Andrew’s Hall 06/23 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Hall