“Luminance” — from the Creative Eclipses EP — was the very first Cave In song I ever heard, sandwiched incongruously between I-don’t-even-remember-what on a mix-tape my friend XandrewX made me in… 1999, I guess. From thereon in I jumped headlong into the world of Cave In, and Jupiter pretty much blew my mind when I heard it. Though it didn’t make the MetalSucks 21 Best Albums of the 21st Century… So Far clusterfuck list, it was damn close to the top of my own list for that poll.

Needless to say I was pretty fucking stoked when super-drummer J.R. Connors launched into the drum-roll intro of “Luminance” at last night’s Cave In show in Brooklyn. I was equally stoked when the band began playing “Big Riff” with, ya know, that big riff; I got goosebumps multiple times during that song. But on the whole I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t just a little disappointed by last night’s show, just like our own Anso DF when he saw Cave In play Los Angeles last month. The sound in the venue left something to be desired, but that wasn’t it. The band was tight. They sounded good. They were energetic. They played good songs.

But I left the show feeling… un-satisfied?

I’m not quite sure what I was expecting. Cave In were never an oh-my-GOD-is-this-band-fucking-good-live band… really good, don’t get me wrong, but not ball-tinglingly amazing. Perhaps I’m a victim of my own hype, having gotten myself too riled up about a reunion of a band who, after all, only disbanded 4 years ago. Maybe it was the crowd, older now, more jaded, less excitable. The Until Your Heart Stops material elicited the biggest audience response with a rowdy enough mosh pit, but still, somehow it felt… forced. Maybe I’m just projecting.

I can’t explain it. I enjoyed myself at the show, and like I said already the band was good. Still, I prefer to remember Cave In by their performance with Old Man Gloom and Scissorfight at Brownie’s (R.I.P.!) circa 2001. For me, that’ll always be the Cave In show.

-VN