INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
The Ataris
Wednesday, Sept. 5
When you book your shows via MySpace and have no label backing you, you just may end up playing a few places like the Northwest Watering Hole in Anderson, Ind., with no stage and an apparently non-functioning air conditioning unit. But for the fans that actually heard about the show, it was a treat to see The Ataris playing at such a small venue in the town where it all began.
The Ataris kicked off their high-energy set with “Summer Wind Was Always Our Song” from 2000’s End is Forever and stuck to the fan favorites during the hour-long performance. Sweaty kids singing along to every word of songs like “In This Diary” and “1*16*96” surrounded them. They even honored one audience request and deviated from their set to play “The Boys of Summer,” which singer Kristopher Roe introduced as their karaoke number that made a lot of money for “some guy from Texas.”
Sadly, the set included only one song (“Cardiff-by-the-Sea”) from their most recent, and arguably best, album, Welcome the Night. While it is disappointing that the lukewarm response to the new album has prompted the band to focus on the older material live, the enthusiastic crowd didn’t seem to mind.
The show ended with the song that has closed most of their shows for nearly 10 years, “San Dimas High School Football Rules” — a song Roe previously expressed a disinterest in playing, because it was no longer relevant to him. Apparently, the fans felt otherwise.