Alkaline Trio - Manchester - 23/05/2010

Alkaline Trio. My god, where do I start?!

Well; Their first support band; “Attack, Attack!” (not the American one!) had an incredible energy about them. The southwalian quartet really knew how to liven up the few who had turned up early to get a good place.

Despite my feeling like they sounded a bit much like fallout boy, I really enjoyed their set. As a fellow welshie, I'm impressed and I will definitely be checking out their myspace!

“Set Your Goals” are a Californian pop-punk/hardcore band who really set the crowd on fire. I lost count of how many crowd surfers got pulled over the barrier and got dragged away by security. For a band I'd never before heard of; I found that their unusual blend of genres worked quite well for them it is just a shame that I couldn't get into them properly because I was too busy trying to listen to their lyrics at which I failed at.

I feel like they could be a better band on CD with the duo on vocals. I think this is due to my lack of knowledge of the hardcore genre but all in all, they did well. Oh and a belated happy birthday to their lead guitarist; the cake looked yummy from where I was standing!

And then there was the epic tension building up to Alkaline Trio themselves where the sound techies kept cutting the music short (which we suspected was on purpose!) which really turned up the tension. But when they did set foot on the stage; the cheers were enormous and I swear I gasped at the sight of Matt Skiba in his skinny jeans, wielding his Fender Jaguar. As soon as they launched into their first song; “This Addiction”, it was official; these guys knew how to play to their own crowd.

“This Could Be Love” couldn't have gone down any better and earned us the title of best gig this tour! Then (after a good few songs) came the small group which included me started up the “Skiba” chant which earned us a song dedication; “Nose Over Tail” from the Goddammit album which is my favourite of the six albums. They played one song after the other, their performance: flawless.

As they played “97”, Matt changed the lyrics to great affect. I love this song for its anxiety and the way that it makes me feel emotional. What Matt did to the lyrics sent a shiver down my spine and brought a tear to my eye to know that he was talking about his divorce just by hearing the words “I put too much on the table, I put too much at stake”.

After chanting for an encore, on came Dan wielding a Gibson Les paul, Derrick with a Fender P-Bass and Matt taking the drum stool. I was pleasantly surprised at the band's ability to play each other's instruments so competently and how comfortable they were with playing “Fine” and a Misfits cover (much to the audience's delight). For the Final Song, They swapped instruments back over and began to play “Radio”. Now, I was disappointed when I was watching youtube videos of them performing this song. Matt just didn't portray the same anger he does on the recorded version and I was hoping that tonight: maybe he'd put that extra effort into it. He did and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

In fact; I thouroughly enjoyed the whole gig. I walked out of Manchester Academy adoring Alkaline Trio more than I thought I ever would. If I ever get the chance to see them again; I'm there!