- Fatally ours
Alkaline Trio brought their brand of genius lyrics and angelic harmonies to a packed House of Blues last night. With such delicate insight and raging hooks, the Chicago group was ready to show off its latest songs, along with a huge handful of older favorites.
The trio sounded polished and poised, with a keen insight on how to work an audience. They tore into their long set with “This Addiction,” the title track to their latest album. The guys played several songs from the new album, including “Dine Dine My Darling.” They also made a point to rally their adoring fans with some of their dark and poignant pieces, like “Fatally Yours” and “Nose Over Tail.”
Alkaline Trio offer every bit of charisma onstage as they do on record. The well-placed harmonies were spot-on live, perhaps even more gripping than they are on the albums.
For old-school fans, Alkaline Trio pulled out “97,” “Mr. Chainsaw” and “100 Stories.” They even satisfied less-ravenous fans with great versions of “Sadie,” “Radio” and “Fuck You Aurora.”
After their original set was over, the group took a break to wipe down and returned for a rousing encore. Alkaline Trio changed things up a bit here: Singer Matt Skiba sat behind drums and drummer Derek Grant sang (Dan Andriano remained on bass). The guys whipped the audience into a near riot with a cover of the Misfits’ “Attitude,” and with that triumphant bow, Alkaline Trio closed the night. —Jara Anton
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2010.
I love when concert reviewers do zero research.
EXAMPLE 1: “For old-school fans, Alkaline Trio pulled out “97,” “Mr. Chainsaw” and “100 Stories.” They even satisfied less-ravenous fans with great versions of “Sadie,” “Radio” and “Fuck You Aurora.””
Both “Radio” and “Fuck You Aurora” were released in 2000, well before “Mr. Chainsaw” or “100 Stories” were even put to tape.
EXAMPLE 2: Neither “Fatally Yours” nor “Nose Over Tail” are “dark” — the former is a simple breakup song, the latter one of the band’s best love songs (I will agree that “Nose Over Tail” is poignant, however). If you wanted to cite their actual darker material that they played, you should’ve gone with “Sadie” (about the Charles Manson murders) or “In Vein.”
I know just grabbing random song titles from a band’s setlist to flesh out your review seems like a good idea, but it might help to do some actual research next time.
Oh, and lastly: Dan played guitar for the Misfits cover. Derek played bass. Count the strings next time.
Thanks for clearing that up, maverick! You’d almost think these reviewers got their info second-hand sometimes.
..and EXAMPLE 3: Almost every review I’ve read only noted the Misfits cover for the encore. Am I wrong, but did they not also play “Fine” and “Radio”?
There were four songs for the encore. ‘Attitude’ was the second song of the encore, ‘Radio’ was the fourth. I can’t remember which songs they played first and third.
That said, it was an awesome show. I’ve been to quite a few concerts over that last 10 years or so and this one blew my mind. Their live performance was nearly flawless with tons of energy. I was really happy to hear a mix of older and newer material.
Their encore was only three songs — “Fine,” “Attitude” (both of which featured Dan on guitar, Derek on bass and Matt on drums) and “Radio.”