Roadside Monument Returns After 15 Years, Still Awesome as Ever

Roadside Monument performing again in 2017… just let that sink in.

Last month, Roadside Monument announced they were reuniting for a single show on June 4 with Unwed Sailor and Daniel G. Harmann. For us “Chrindie” kids who grew up on Tooth & Nail Records in the mid-to-late ’90s, this was a huge deal. Roadside Monument was often labelled “emo” and “math-rock” due to their music’s intensity and complexity, but they handily transcended such terms on albums like 1997’s Eight Hours Away from Being a Man.

The band briefly reunited in 2002 and played a blistering set at that year’s Cornerstone festival. (I have video of that set somewhere and someday, it’ll make its way onto YouTube.) But even though that was 15 years ago, and the band members have all gone their separate ways (most notably, bassist Johnathon Ford with his Unwed Sailor project), the above video proves that 15 years means nothing. Roadside Monument still rock just as much as they did back in the day.

Indeed, this incredible performance of “My Hands Are Thermometers” — which just so happens to be one of my favorite Roadside Monument songs — will probably be the highlight of my week; it’s only Monday, but it feels like it’ll all be downhill from here. Hopefully, a good recording of the full performance will appear somewhere online soon. I’ve long believed that Roadside Monument never got their due the first time around. But they were always one of the best, and this video’s solid proof of that.