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Review |
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 Today we battled through all the snow and bad weather
that was standing in our way from getting to the
Alkaline Trio show and we proved to be successful
by getting doing that 2 hour drive with no problems
and getting to the Academy to see Alkaline Trio.
By the time we got into the Academy the first band
Broadway Calls had already been on and it was about
15minutes until The Audition were due to take to
the stage, the first thing I noticed when I got
in the venue was how empty it was the upstairs of
the venue wasn’t open due to not enough tickets
being sold, and the downstairs looked very bare
in comparison to over shows I have been to at the
venue, in fact when I came and saw Alkaline Trio
in the same venue back in October 2005 both the
downstairs and upstairs was open that day and the
venue was pretty rammed, so what has happened in
those 3 and a half years to make the Birmingham
Alkaline Trio show this empty, my guess is that
due to the credit crunch people can’t afford
to do to as many gigs and carefully pick what bands
they go and see, also I am sure the bad weather
was also a big factor for people not being able
to get to the show and lastly could punk be dead?
 The Audition took to the stage about 5minutes early,
and they seem to be loving being the main support
band for Alkaline Trio as front man Danny Stevens
bounces all over the stage whilst firing off with
his melodic vocal assault as the rest of the band
jam away in such a powerful way. A good 40 minute
set was played by The Audition, the crowd wasn’t
moving that much for them but that didn’t
stop the band from putting on an energetic show.
When the Audition finished it was a good 40minute
wait until Alkaline Trio were due to take to the
stage so it was time to check out the merchandise
and have a couple of drinks whilst waiting patiently
for headliners to start.
The long break was finally over the lights went
down and Alkaline Trio took to the stage with
the odd blue light flickering on the band as they
made their way onto the stage, Matt was situated
to the far left of the stage, Derek was directly
in the middle with his drum kit situated right
at the back of the stage and Dan was to the far
right and there was no back drop or special effects
in sight which meant it was a straight forward
punk rock show tonight.
 Alkaline Trio started off with ‘Calling
All Skeletons’ which happens to be the opening
track from their current album ‘Agony And
Irony’, the start of the song was met with
screams from the fans and the more the song went
on the more people started singing along with
the band. The next song was ‘Private Eye’
this song went down a treat as the majority of
the half filled Academy started singing along.
The next song was time for Dan Andriano to take
lead vocals and this was for one of my favourite
songs ‘I Lied My Face Off’ and it
seems like the song is a favourite with most Alkaline
Trio fans judging from the response it got.
 Most of the classic Alkaline Trio songs were played
tonight such as ‘the new single I Found
Away’, the ska-tastic Dan Andriano sing-along
‘In Vein’, the ever so poppy ‘Stupid
Kid’, ‘Help Me’ which happens
to be the first single from the current album
and my favourite songs from ‘Good Mourning’
which happen to be ‘We’ve Had Enough’,
‘All On Black’ and ‘This Could
Be Love’.
‘This Could Be love’ was the last
track of the night, it went down well but from
where I was standing the sound for the song wasn’t
the best, and I am sure that it’s down to
the overall sound that’s going around the
half filled Academy tonight, Alkaline Trio left
the stage whilst the fans chanted them back to
play their encore which was meant to be the anti
bush song ‘Warbrain’ and the big sing-along
classic that is ‘Radio’
But due to bassist Dan Andriano feeling ill,
Matt Skiba came back on stage and knocked out
a couple of acoustic tracks which were ‘
Sorry About That’ and ‘Blue In The
Face’ which went down really well with the
hardcore fans as it was something they weren’t
expected but I am also quite sure many people
walked away a bit disappointed.
I have to admit this wasn’t the best alkaline
Trio show I have been to, the venue was too big
and to empty for tonight’s show, the crowd
really weren’t getting into it apart from
a select few people towards the front in the middle
and overall I feel slightly disappointed about
a show I had been looking forward to for a long
time. Hopefully the London show will be better and make up for it.
The Audition 3/5
Alkaline Trio 3.5/5
Review By Trigger |
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| Alkaline
Trio |
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| The
Audition |
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| Band
Related Links |
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| Review
Score Code |
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- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
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