Okay, so they didn't exactly set the world–mainstream or underground–on fire. But Denver's Christie Front Drive was a band that inspired scores of indie-rock and (so-called) emo groups, mostly through the filter of bigger bands that have adopted CFD's sound since the band broke up a decade ago. (The most notorious of these acolytes is Jimmy Eat World, who released a split single with CFD in the mid-'90s and whose major-label debut Static Prevails features guest vocals from CFD's Eric Richter). CFD has a cult following to this day–and a huge chunk of that cult will be assembling at the Marquis Theater in Denver on September 1 to see Christie Front Drive play for the first time since disbanding (we won't count the hometown "reunions" they did immediately following their breakup in 1997). The band's individual members are now spread throughout the country and have played in numerous outfits including Antarctica, The 101, The Blue Ontario, The Mighty Rime, and Richter's new Golden City.
Why should anyone but the diehards care? CFD was one of the first groups of the early '90s to wed the dynamics of Drive Like Jehu and Fugazi to the aching melody of some of their more left-field inspirations like Buffalo Tom and The Wedding Present. (To put things in context, members of the scene CFD was a part of are now in bands like Son Volt, The Mars Volta, Rilo Kiley, !!!, The Postal Service, The Rapture, The Thermals, and so on.) Perhaps we're not at the point yet where forgotten indie and post-hardcore bands of the '90s are being seriously and extensively exhumed, reexamined, and lionized, but it'll happen sooner or later. And Christie Front Drive will surely be on that list of the decade's lost greats.