Welcome the Night was quite the departure for The Ataris. In 2007, Kris Roe's Indiana-raised group swapped straightforward Pop Punk for drifting, atmospheric Indie Rock, which was a decision not wholly received well. AbsolutePunk.net assigned Welcome a dreadful 43-percent grade, and commenters echoed the sentiment. (One person overdramatically declared, “The Ataris are dead to me.”)
Instead of mourning the departure of unsatisfied fans, Roe actually hopes to do something alienating.
“I always want to throw a curve ball. If I wrote So Long, Astoria Part 2, I would have been telling the biggest lie,” the vocalist/guitarist says, referencing the band’s big-selling 2003 LP that included a spry cover of Don Henley's “The Boys of Summer.” “My duty as a songwriter is to move around and do what's inside my heart. Only worry about what you (want), and your fans will follow.”
The Ataris play The Mad Hatter with Rosemary Device, A Decade to Die For, Pilot Around the Stars, Mixtapes and Lights Down Low. Get show details and Sound Advice here.
