Absurdland 

I thought this was much easier than some of the other 5.8s at the Gunks. I think Modern Times, Double Crack, Son of Easy O and Pas De Deux are all much tougher.
The gear is abundant, the climbing is super fun. I think the route is a new favorite of mine, albeit overrated at 5.8+.

This route was formerly rated 5.9. It's not as continuous as the other routes mentioned as harder, so it seems a bit easier; however, placing the right gear at the crux is critical.

Pretty good climb.

A big tip, a gold camalot is not the best piece of gear to use the first move. Instead, stick a blue TCU in the pin scar less than 2 feet above the pocket for the gold cam.

A red Alien can also be sneaked in at the bottom.

I don't think it's a sandbagged route. It's definitely 5.8 range with some of sustained 5.7 climbing, then ease off when getting to the top. A gold camalot works fine, you can also plug many other pieces in, but the gold is the most obvious one.

The first crux is not that bad, and you can stick a #3 after your climb past the #2 to keep you off the ground fall. The second crux protects well by a 0.3 - a headier move than the first one, IMO. The rest of the climb is a cruiser.

The two hardest moves are very tough for 5.8 and it doesn't surprise me this used to be graded a 5.9

Great fun, one of the better single pitch gunks routes.

I have a complex mathematical transformation I perform on all re-graded routes ..... aaaanyway, I still think of this as 9. As Kevin said - tougher single moves than either Pas de Deux or Son of Easy O, which are the sane comparisons.

fun climbing with a tough start.

definitely on par with Drunkards or Eastertime too. for me Columbia and Birdland were harder. .8 is about right.

Whether or not this is sandbagged depends on your level of comfort with this style of climbing, namely, thin face climbing (think: tiny feet) with occasional insecure finger jams or tiny crimps. This is very similar in flavor to something interesting (5.7+), but I thought this was much harder (in that I came much closer to falling here than on SI). I think this was way harder than even modern times (5.8+) and about as hard as directissima because I LOVE getting pumped and HATE having my feet feel like they could pop off at any second. So, take the grade as you will, knowing that if thin face climbing is your weakness then this climb will be harder than 5.8, and if it's your strength then you'll love this climb and won't worry about the grade.

One (ridiculous) guidebook even put this at 5.10-, which is absurd because I climbs this years before breaking into that grade at the Gunks.

One of my favorite routes at the gunks. Impeccable rock quality. Very well protected - you can sew this route up if you want. A gold camalot clipped short protects the first move. Regarding the grade controvery on this route, if you pull the "tricky move" the right way, it feels easy - like 5.7. If you do it the hard way, it feels like 5.9 in my opinion.