When you go see a band that you’ve been listening to forever; one of those bands that you own 9 or 10 albums by; do you ever find yourself wishing just a little that the band that walks on stage is actually the 2003 or 2004 version of the band?

Maybe someday Converge will do the reunion thing and do a tour where they play Petitioning the Empty Sky or When Forever Comes Crashing all the way through. They’ll have to stop making new albums and break up for a decade first though.

Notwithstanding my yearning for the past, they were razor sharp last night, tighter than the other times I’ve seen them I think. I got too drunk during Coalesce and could only take a few minutes at a time up at the front before I had to fall back and pant like the old man I am.

I got kicked in the face more times than I have at any show since high school.  It was fun. But I wish they had played Conduit, just a little.

Oh, and the guitarist for Coalesce is super skinny, looks like he’s having seizures sometimes when he plays, jumps in the crowd and gets his gear all bashed up and uncabled and doesn’t pick the strings so much as he smacks the guitar in no seeming relation to the sounds that come out of it. I applaud his style.