It's never in any band's plan to break up, but it's much less anticipated for a band to reemerge as a more mature version of their past selves. But to everyone's surprise -- even their own -- The Dismemberment Plan are back with a new record, Uncanney Valley, that not only recognizes that they've gotten older, but embraces their age, too. That being said, just because Travis Morrison and company aren't driven by spastic twentysomething tension anymore doesn't mean they're any less fervent about what they're doing. Uncanney Valley doesn't have a sense of emergency, but it's carried by a sense of self-reflection, which serves as a postscript to the pensive uncertainty of the band's presumed swan song Change.
Retrospection is a fascinating angle for a band who so painfully captured the moments of adulthood that questioned whether or not they'd ever get there, but the band proved this afternoon at Judson Memorial Church that growing older doesn't mean getting any less restless, and they're attacking their songs with the same off-kilter rhythms and stage-rushing enthusiasm that they sported 15 years ago.
