Being grown up isn’t half as fun as growing up.
No truer words have ever been spoken by Ataris frontman, Kris Roe.
The Ataris came through the House of Blues in San Diego this weekend on the most recent leg of their So long, Astoria reunion tour. The band is traveling around, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the album’s release, playing it in it’s entirety at each show with some other fan favorites at the end.
I’m not going to lie; I was psyched for this show. Really, truly excited at the chance to see the Ataris, one of my favorite bands during high school play one of my all-time favorite albums live.
But it seems that the last decade has not been too good to them.
Their performance overall resembled that of a band struggling to keep up with the younger guys, a band that really should have given it up by now. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that it was a terrible performance (they’ve had worse), but you shouldn’t be out performed by all three of your opening acts…especially when two of your bandmates also played in first opening band.
Kris, I really feel for the guy, seemed to struggle all night. His voice strained and he often appeared to be out of breath. He unnecessarily screamed the lyrics as if his head would explode if he didn’t get them out in time. His movements on stage were limited and awkward. He frequently skipped songs or forgot the order of the set despite the fact that the set list was taped on the floor in front of him. Perhaps they just had an off day. It happens.
It brings to mind their 2012 show in Asbury Park, where Roe lost it during “Your Boyfriend Sucks” and destroyed the drumset because the drummers performance was “f**king embarrassing”. This show was nowhere near that terrible.
It was, for the most part, pretty cool hearing all those songs played live. But being a fan and a musician myself, watching them struggle like they did onstage was incredibly disheartening.
Up until this tour, Kris Roe was the only original member remaining. The other members of the band have their own things going on, so it begs the question…Why don’t the Ataris, or I should say, why doesn’t Kris Roe just let the Ataris be and move on to something else?
