Wow. Alkaline Trio last nite. And wow. I had mixed feelings about the set list, because they played most of Crimson, most of Goddamnit, and not much from the albums in between.
The openers were Thieves Like Us, who sounded quite a bit like Tsunami Bomb with a less hot lead singer, and Rufio. Rufio is a fun pop-punk band that I had heard a few tracks from before, and they have a pretty decent stage present. The best part of their show was getting to chant "Rufio! Rufio! Roo-fee-ohhhhhhhhh!" like in the movie Hook. Good stuff.
We were close to the front for the two openers and pushed our way up against the barrier between Rufio and Alkaline Trio, but once the headliners took the stage, the place absolutely came the fuck down. All my friends left our carefully-scouted spots after the first two songs because it was too violent for them. I was left with Hannah, one of Jamie's friends and someone I barely knew, but she was the only big enough fan to withstand the whirlpool of elbows and spit that churned directly in front of the stage.
They kicked off with three of the first few tracks from the new album, Time to Waste, The Poison, and Mercy Me (three of the best ones from the new album, IMHO), then launched into some of the stuff from the middle of their catalogue, Private Eye and You've Got So Far to Go. They didn't play a lot of my favorites, like Queen of Pain, Fuck You Aurora, If We Never Go Inside, Madame Me, Smoke, or San Fransisco, but they did Cooking Wine, Clavicle, Crawl, This Could Be Love, and a particularly kickass version of Radio.
Since it was so unbelievably hot in Tremont, the two security guys made rounds with water bottles spraying down the first few rows and pouring that sweet nectar into the baby bird-like open mouths of the shouting fans. Matt Skiba has some really terrific eyes. He played to the crowd (mostly during Dan's songs when he could come away from the mic), singing along, fucking wide-eyed as a mental patient, and making eye contact with everyone he could. It was quite the adrenaline rush. It reminded me of Jason Lee's speech in Almost Famous about his job as a singer for a rock and roll band being getting people off, finding that one person in the crowd who isn't getting off, and making them get off.
Because of the heat, instead of an encore, Matt just said, "Hey everybody! We're back!" and played the last two songs. They closed with a medley of Nose Over Tail, Blue In the Face (one of my favorites and the only time I've heard a non-acoustic version of it; brilliant), and 97. They didn't stick around to meet any fans after the show, but my friend got our attention as we were leaving to see them sneaking out in a Chrysler instead of the tour bus (Matt was driving; whatever happened to "You won't catch me behind the wheel of a Chrysler ever again"?). I honestly think we were the only ones that saw them leave.
We went to Waffle House afterward with a few new friends we had made at the show, and I had seven glasses of water (it was fucking hot in there, okay?). Great night, great friends, still recovering. My arms and shoulders are covered in bruises and I still cannot hear or speak very well. But it was so worth it.
Me? I'm dead now.
The openers were Thieves Like Us, who sounded quite a bit like Tsunami Bomb with a less hot lead singer, and Rufio. Rufio is a fun pop-punk band that I had heard a few tracks from before, and they have a pretty decent stage present. The best part of their show was getting to chant "Rufio! Rufio! Roo-fee-ohhhhhhhhh!" like in the movie Hook. Good stuff.
We were close to the front for the two openers and pushed our way up against the barrier between Rufio and Alkaline Trio, but once the headliners took the stage, the place absolutely came the fuck down. All my friends left our carefully-scouted spots after the first two songs because it was too violent for them. I was left with Hannah, one of Jamie's friends and someone I barely knew, but she was the only big enough fan to withstand the whirlpool of elbows and spit that churned directly in front of the stage.
They kicked off with three of the first few tracks from the new album, Time to Waste, The Poison, and Mercy Me (three of the best ones from the new album, IMHO), then launched into some of the stuff from the middle of their catalogue, Private Eye and You've Got So Far to Go. They didn't play a lot of my favorites, like Queen of Pain, Fuck You Aurora, If We Never Go Inside, Madame Me, Smoke, or San Fransisco, but they did Cooking Wine, Clavicle, Crawl, This Could Be Love, and a particularly kickass version of Radio.
Since it was so unbelievably hot in Tremont, the two security guys made rounds with water bottles spraying down the first few rows and pouring that sweet nectar into the baby bird-like open mouths of the shouting fans. Matt Skiba has some really terrific eyes. He played to the crowd (mostly during Dan's songs when he could come away from the mic), singing along, fucking wide-eyed as a mental patient, and making eye contact with everyone he could. It was quite the adrenaline rush. It reminded me of Jason Lee's speech in Almost Famous about his job as a singer for a rock and roll band being getting people off, finding that one person in the crowd who isn't getting off, and making them get off.
Because of the heat, instead of an encore, Matt just said, "Hey everybody! We're back!" and played the last two songs. They closed with a medley of Nose Over Tail, Blue In the Face (one of my favorites and the only time I've heard a non-acoustic version of it; brilliant), and 97. They didn't stick around to meet any fans after the show, but my friend got our attention as we were leaving to see them sneaking out in a Chrysler instead of the tour bus (Matt was driving; whatever happened to "You won't catch me behind the wheel of a Chrysler ever again"?). I honestly think we were the only ones that saw them leave.
We went to Waffle House afterward with a few new friends we had made at the show, and I had seven glasses of water (it was fucking hot in there, okay?). Great night, great friends, still recovering. My arms and shoulders are covered in bruises and I still cannot hear or speak very well. But it was so worth it.
Me? I'm dead now.
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