Cross Fingers: Atari Teenage Riot, Coming in September?

Very, very cool…hopefully, anyway. No confirmation yet, but I’ve heard from a reliable-ish source that German anarcho-electronicists Atari Teenage Riot, who disbanded back in 2000 and reformed just this year, will be playing here in Houston on their impending reunion tour.

The date, I’m told, is Wed., September 29th. It’s not yet listed on any of their official schedules, but there’s a nifty blank space between a show in Pittsburgh on the 25th and one in L.A. on the 30th, so it’s at least plausible. Sources seem a bit shifty on the venue, however — the original info I got said the show would be at Numbers, but I’ve also seen something about them playing Walter’s, instead. Stay tuned for more on that.

I have to say, between this and the Pixies reunion tour stopping in town (and, well, me & Midget #2’s respective birthdays), this coming September is looking pretty damn good. Hell, I’m just glad ATR are touring again, period, especially considering co-founder Carl Crack‘s death from an overdose back in 2001. The only original member left is Alec Empire, apparently (joined by Nic Endo and MC CX Kidtronik), but I doubt that’s changed the group’s sound much — expect plenty of breakneck beats, ridiculously loud, raw guitars, and screaming/shrieking.

I’ll admit, btw, that this is normally not the kind of thing I’m into; I can’t really explain it, but back in the late ’90s, when I first heard the band (on a split with the staggeringly awesome Asian Dub Foundation, who I’d love to see come through town probably even more than ATR), they really seemed to just fit somehow with the bleak, soulless, consumer-obsessed world that was then being born. Makes perfect sense to see ’em come back now…