Shikari, At The Drive-In @ Vera, Groningen 21 February 2001

Michael: At The Drive In was immensely popular and incredibly hyped. Needless to say this concert was completely sold out and there was a long cue in front of the venue. We played a rather uncompromising set with loads of noise and inaccessible tunes. I loved to see the faces of mainstream people who could not escape because it was too crowded and were forced to undergo our treatment. Priceless!
And this was the very last concert of At The Drive In. They canceled the rest of their worldtour and broke up. During the concert, there was a very annoying camerateam from VPRO television who tried to follow them but got ignored systematically. Until a year after, we still got requests from journalists/magazines to talk about their final hours but we kindly refused.

From the bacteria.nl website We are the band that plays the very last show of AT THE DRIVE IN in a sold out Vera Club. This was a big circus. Professional photographers, reporters, camera/television/radio teams everywhere. VPRO television was doing a documentary on the band and following them on all of their Dutch dates. We noticed that the band was not really cooperative and this created a rather tense atmosphere within that VPRO crew. We made a special and rather noisy setlist to fuck with the crowd. Adrenaline was swirling once getting on stage and I loved the fact that a large part of the crowd that was there for some serious melodies, could in no way escape us because the place was packed. Forced to fucking endure some true agony. When we finished, we see that VPRO team desperately seeking contact and trying to get to the band. They’re getting terribly annoying, and needless to say they run into closed doors. AT THE DRIVE IN plays pretty bad and due to frustration, their guitarist smashes his guitar into the backwall. They leave the stage ranting and cursing and quickly disappear in the backstage, literally slamming the door shut in the media’s face! They instantly canceled the rest of the tour and flew back home the next day, to split up… So, once in a while we still get requests or phonecalls from reporters and journalists to talk about the final hours of AT THE DRIVE IN coz we were the only ones there with them on,- and offstage. HAHAHAHA!

Shikari (Groningen, The Netherlands)
At The Drive-In (El Paso, USA)