Molecular crystals of apolar π-conjugated hydrocarbons exhibit pronounced solution-to-crystal spectral shifts, yet the interplay between band formation and exciton coupling remains unclear. Adamantylethynyl-pyrene derivatives were designed to adopt unidirectional crystal packing, providing a model system to disentangle these effects. Large redshifts of up to -203 meV are observed, which cannot be explained by exciton coupling alone but require a substantial contribution from band dispersion, ide