2nd Grade's "Wish You Were Here Tour Revisited" is a dual collection of the band's remastered 2018 demo tape ("Wish You Were Here Tour"), and a handful of reworked studio versions (2021) of standouts from the same release. Presented as a 23 track album, "Wish You Were Here Tour Revisited" is a document of a rising band's past, present, and future. 2nd Grade's past is songwriter Pete Gill on a friend's futon, layering guitars with a zoom recorder on his day off. "Wish You Were Here Tour" came before the band members, studio, and more serious genre experimentation of 2020's "Hit to Hit" (Double Double Whammy), and is Gill at his most vulnerable. Lo-fi guitar riffs and snarky jokes are broken up by sincerity and tenderness. Despite Gill's pan-instrumental virtuosity, "Wish You Were Here Tour" is still defined by personal idiosyncrasy. The future is a nonstop rush of guitar, harmony, and gratification. 2nd Grade's new albums are like bags of Jolly Ranchers; seemingly bottomless containers of sweet sensory overload, with every possible flavor - overwhelming confusion, new love, spite, fear, and nostalgic longing. There's more distortion, more production, and even more guitar. Gill sings louder than he used to, whether it's due to confidence or the move from thin-walled apartments to the recording studio. Both versions of the "Wish You Were Here Tour" songs develop the 2nd Grade ethos: childhood wonder, experimentation, guitar hooks, and having as much fun as possible before you die.
