I
headed down to the Academy in Bristol tonight
to catch Alkaline Trio on their headline UK tour
in support of their ninth studio album ‘My
Shame Is True’ along with 1,300 other fans
of the band, I got to the venue just as main support
Bayside took to the stage.
Now the New York punk rockers have been together
since 2000 and tonight was the first time for
me seeing them on the live circuit and they put
on a great show opening with ‘Big Cheese’
which also happens to be the
opening track from their latest studio album ‘Cult’
which was released back in February, Bayside had
a good 40minute set and managed to play 11 tracks
in that time which featured a big mixture of their
back catalogue whilst also finding room to play
three tracks from their latest album ‘Cult’
and also an amazing cover of Elvis Costello’s
‘Oliver’s Army’ which had the
majority of the crowd singing-a-long loud and
strong.
The most striking thing about Bayside is the stand
out vocals from front man Anthony Raneri who
seriously has a powerful set of vocals which are
truly infectious at the same time and tonight
he gave it his all with each and every song played
sounding exactly what they sound like on their
studio albums.
After Bayside left the stage there was a 20 minute
wait for Alkaline Trio to take to the stage and
within minutes chants of “Trio, Trio, Trio”
were heard all over the venue as the fans couldn’t
contain their excitement that the cult-pop-punk-rockers
Alkaline Trio were to take to the stage in mere
minutes.
From
my experience of going to thousands of gigs I
feel that Alkaline Trio have some of the most
hardcore fans as the majority of the people in
the crowd tonight were kitted out in their Alkaline
Trio t-shirts, showing off their Alkaline Trio
tattoos and talking about how many shows they
have gone to on the tour and how many miles they
have clocked up doing so and that is one of the
things that make Alkaline Trio shows so special
as you are more than likely to bump into someone
you know or someone you have seen at a past Alkaline
trio show.
As
soon as the lights dimmed and Derek Grant, Dan
Andriano and Matt Skiba took to the stage and
smashed straight into ‘This Could Be Love’
the crowd erupted with excitement as ‘This
Could Be Love’ is easily one of the most
loved songs within the Alkaline Trio fan base
and was such a perfect opener which really got
the crowd moving.
The set that Alkaline Trio played tonight was
a lot different from their previous tours as this
time around they cut out a lot of songs that you
would expect them to play and added in a lot of
rarities and b-sides and that is what made tonight’s
show so special as the band played through the
likes of
‘Jaked On Green Beers’, ‘Sadie’,
‘Warbrain’, ‘Dine, Dine My Darling’,
‘Cringe’, ‘Time To Waste’,
‘Stupid Kid’ as well as four tracks
from their latest album ‘My Shame Is True’.
The band were clearly on top form tonight with
Derek Grant laying down his drum beats to perfection
whilst Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano did a great
job on guitar and bass and also laying down their
vocals with the only downside being that there
were not enough Dan Andriano lead vocal tracks
featured in the set yet in the 5 songs he got
he proper showed how he has grown as a vocalist
over the years.
The
set came to an end with ‘Private Eye’
and ‘Radio’ two songs which really
got the crowd singing-a-long to the point that
voices were nearly lost especially when 1,300
fans gave it their all screaming “shaking
like a dog shitting razorblades, waking up next
to nothing after dreaming of you and me, I’m
waking up all alone, waking up so relieved, while
you’re taking your time with apologies”
along with Matt Skiba.
Tonight was another amazing Alkaline Trio show
added to the list, they truly mixed things up
with their setlist tonight and the only criticism
I have is that Alkaline Trio have been together
for nearly 20 years now have released 9 studio
albums plus various ep’s, splits and general
rare collections yet they only managed to play
for 1hour and 20minutes yet they have enough material
to play a proper mammoth sized set like Green
Day have been doing for the past 5 years or so.
Bayside 3.5/5
Alkaline Trio 5/5
Review And Photos By Trigger
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