The Heart Says Yes (But The Head Says No) As At The Drive In Tease Return To Action

For a dedicated group of formerly angsty ex-teenagers, At The Drive In represents everything that was great about the post-hardcore explosion at the turn of the century, and if the pseudo-cryptic clues posted to the band's online channels today are any indication, we could be looking at the dawn of a long-awaited second chapter for the Texan pioneers.

The internet has largely worked itself into a tizz over a series of indications that the band are planning a return of sorts. These include the brand-new profile picture on Twitter and Facebook and the fact they've made their first new posts on both since September 2013, uploading a video of live-show stills soundtracked by an unidentifiable slice of music and cryptically teasing a further announcement on 21 January (i.e. tomorrow).

We already know that the band are apparently appearing at this year's Rock On The Range festival in Ohio this May, though there is speculation that we mightn't be seeing the "classic" ATDI line-up, with a festival rep confirming to Pitchfork that, while the band will definitely be performing, they could not verify who would grace the renewed roster.  

While an At The Drive In reunion that goes beyond festival spots is something that fans have been crying out for since, oh, 2001 or so, it's worth not losing sight of the reasons the band imploded in the first place — internal tension and touring exhaustion resulted in the members fracturing into two new acts, Sparta (Jim Ward/Tony Hajjar/Paul Hinojos) and The Mars Volta (Cedric Bixler-Zavala/Omar Rodriguez-Lopez), in line with their respective creative goals.

After a long period of separation and then much back-and-forth between 2009 and 2011, the band finally reunited to play several festival slots from early 2012, including at that year's Splendour In The Grass, where it suddenly became apparent why these sorts of things shouldn't be forced: Rodriguez-Lopez spent almost the entire set either with his back to the audience or barely moving (or both), and Bixler-Zavala largely phoned in his vocals (although admittedly not his dance moves, which remained wild-as-ever). If your memory is a bit clouded about how good it actually was by all the tinnies and pills you'd sunk at the time, refresh yourself with this pretty terrible-quality fan video from the gig.

The reason for the lackluster performance was obvious even at the time — as Rodriguez-Lopez told UK outlet The Skinny way back in 2009:

"The fact of the matter is that we're in our 30s now and that break-up happened 10 years ago. As a human being you don't want that kind of karma … so I just called everybody up and invited them to my house and said, 'Hey, listen … let's be friends again'.

"But do I want to reunite and play fucking 15-year-old songs? Well, it would be like asking you, 'Do you want to get back together with your first girlfriend?' You learn some amazing things together, but I shudder at the thought."

Presuming that he hasn't had a total change of heart in the intervening years — and based off the fraction of new music heard in the fresh video — it's unlikely we're going to be getting anything close to Relationship Of Command Part II out of this. Whether that's a good or a bad thing is obviously totally subjective, as are your thoughts about the prospect of this reunion, but one thing is certainly seeming pretty damn likely: this probably won't be the At The Drive In that you know and love, but a different beast — whether that's purely sonically, or if it extends to the band's wider line-up — altogether.

We're not saying that you shouldn't be excited. Just be realistic. We're hoping for a pleasant surprise, at any rate — and we'll probably find out whether the hype is justified in a matter of days. Keep your eyes peeled.