I found Absolution

Last month I worked the Overcast/Dissolve reunion tour as it came through Albany. I was never a huge fan of either band. Tripface played with Dissolve at the QE2 once, it was very awkward, I blame the bass player's devil lock and very odd stage presence. Overcast gained popularity while I was taking a break from hardcore, I remember buying the seven inch but that's about it. Oddly enough I enjoyed both bands, I especially enjoyed the crowd. 90 percent of this in attendance were around my age. As one friend said it was like traveling back in time. There was only one fight, sadly enough when I jumped off the speaker to help break it up I must have tweaked my knee because it was all swollen this morning. I am getting old.

The weekend before Lins and I went down the the city to see the Absolution reunion. I interviewed the singer, Dinji Brown, a few years ago for Bystander. I am not a fan of reunions but I had never seen the band before, and had gotten into them very late. Many of my older Friends talked about their legendary stage presence so there was no way I was missing this show. When I heard about the reunion I was excited.

The trip down was a nightmare. Storm after storm, rain would come down, the clouds would clear and then bam! We drove through at least 3 downpours. We saw 4 accidents and even drove through what smelled like a small Forrest fire. By the time we got to the city we were both exhausted and hungry. I had missed the opening band I had wanted to see, Atlas Shrugged, so we went and grabbed food at VP. The soul chicken still rules.

Absolution were awesome, everything I expected them to be. They weren't always tight, the drummer didn't really know the songs, but this added to the authenticity of the set. What I loved was that guitar player nailed his original guitar sound. Many reunited tend to modernize their sound, especially since they tend to have much better equipment then they did in the 80's. Absolution's guitar player didn't, and this made it 10 times better then any other reunion I have attended. The band energy was on point, and now I understand what my friends were talking about.

At one point I had a shiver run down my spine, the crowd and atmosphere were like a time machine. I am so glad that I never out grew hardcore, and I love catching that feeling once in a while. The feeling I had my first show, first stage dive, and first sing along.