(no subject)
I did a (pretty long) write-up of the Alkaline Trio show. It will be strategically placed after the cut, for those who are interested.
Against Me!
Setlist:
Cliche Guevara
Unprotected Sex with Multiple Partners
Rice and Bread
Reinventing Axl Rose
New Song
Miami
From Her Lips to God's Ears
Don't Lose Touch
You Look Like I Need a Drink
Problems
T.S.R.
Pints of Guinness Make You Strong
Sink, Florida, Sink
Basically all you need to know about Against Me! is: They fucking rock. Some things you may or may not notice about their live show are: They sound spot on, almost CD quality live. Another thing you might think is: how the fuck is that voice coming out of that small skinny dude. Also noticable is the way they set up on stage. The main singer is stage left, the main backup is stage right, and the sometimes-screams-into-the-mic guy is in the center. I was very impressed with the performance itself, although I am pretty dissapointed they didn't touch on "Reinventing Axl Rose" some more since I'm really not too fond of their other two albums (I stole the set list from another board). Cavalier and Searching just don't hit me as hard as Axl does. Anyways, good times. T.S.R. and Pints were really the highlight of the set.
And oh yeah, I didn't mention that they didn't talk at all. They just fucking played their hearts out and played that 13 song set in 40 minutes. The only thing remotely interacting with the crowd was when Tom started singing how he didn't give a shit about how he was out of tune or something.
Alkaline Trio
(Note: Alkaline Trio is my favorite band and they have helped me through hell and high water, so if I get into gay fanboyish rants, please understand. This is the first time I've seen them play old material and b-sides and the first time I've seen them in a club this small. Sure, I am a relatively new fan [since FHTI], but their older CDs are now my favorite.)
Setlist:
1. Cringe (GD)
2. Cop (GD)
3. San Francisco (GD)
4. Nose Over Tail (GD)
5. As You Were (GD)
6. Enjoy Your Day (GD) (Full Band)
7. Clavicle (GD)
8. My Little Needle (GD)
9. Southern Rock (GD)
10. Message From Kathlene (GD)
11. Trouble Breathing (GD) (Matt Acoustic)
12. Sorry About That (GD) (Matt Acoustic)
13. Blue in the Face (GM) (Matt Acoustic)
14. Buried (Mercy Me Single) (Dan Acoustic) (Claimed he's never played live before)
15. My Standard Break From Life (Hell Yes 7 inch) (Dan acoustic)
16. Blue Carolina (GM) (Dan Acoustic)
17. Good Fucking Bye (Skiba/Seconds Split) (Full Band)
18. Hell Yes (Hell Yes 7 inch)
19. I'm Dying Tomorrow (FHTI)
20. Dethbed (Crimson)
21. Queen of Pain (HWM Split)
22. Take Lots with Alcohol (FHTI)
23. Goodbye Forever (S/T)
24. Crawl (FHTI)
25. Old School Reasons (Thick OIL Chicago Comp)
26. 100 Stories (GM)
27. Emma (GM) (Intro'd with Misfits "Last Caress")(Fucking awesome)
28. Private Eye (FHTI)
29. This Could Be Love (GM)
30. '97 (S/T)
As far as the setlist goes, it was pretty dissapointing. We got a lot of Infirmary, which I haven't seen too much of on other setlists, but too much Good Mourning. Granted, they were the best songs off GM (in my opinion), but I would have EASILY traded them for stuff off of S/T or MICF (especially MICF, since we got NONE). Though, I've pretty much came to terms with the fact that the only way I could be happy with their set is if they played for like 6 hours straight. It was really surprising that they did not play My Friend Peter or Maybe I'll Catch Fire, though.
Anyways, the venue goes dark, people start going nuts, they pull away the velvet curtain to reveal the three clocks, each set at 6 o'clock, it's still dark, I'm yelling HAIL SATAN!, everyone's going bonkers. The intro played. It was some cheese gothic organ music, of course, and more HAIL SATAN!s are yelled. The band finally gets out there. Dan's wearing some kinda weird pirate/opera puffy shirt thing. Derek...is Derek. Most noticably is Skiba, who comes out wearing a Chicago Police Department uniform. Surprising enough, he had no eye-liner on (though, his veggie diet has made him quite skeletal).
The music started and I pushed my way into the front where I was eventually right in front of Dan. By the end of the show I was behind the person on the railing with a perfect view of everything that was going on. Dan is my favorite member of the Trio. I was gushing. He seems generally uninterested and almost miserable, though, which kinda makes me sad. I don't think he cracked a smile the entire night. Maybe he was just having a bad night. Who knows? Emotions aside, that man is a beast on the bass.
I've heard Alkaline Trio has been underwhelming live on this past tour from a few people. After finally seeing them last night, I have no idea what they're talking about. They were spot on and having a good fucking time (except Dan, as aforementioned). Then again it could be the hometown crowd that sparked the madness in them. Skiba was all smiles and really talking to the crowd and leaning off the stage and stuff and Derek was commenting into the mics throughout the night.
The overall crowd was pretty horrible. A lot were fans didn't know the words to Goddamnit. It was pretty unfortunate. There was a lot of unity and connection within the people who knew the songs though. Then, there were the crowd surfers. The kind of crowd surfers that just kinda sit there in limbo while the security pushed them back towards the crowd and then the crowd was pushing them back towards the front. There were also the fair share of meatheads protecting their girlfriends. Overall it was pretty much standard fare for shows nowadays.
Something else small, that should probably be acknowledged was the clock banner because as the set went through it's different stages (Goddamnit, Acoustic, etc.), blacklights revealed different designs. It was really cool and added to the mood. After Goddamnit and the acoustic stuff, that banner dropped to reveal this one, which they used on their tour with MCR, as well as their headlining tour with Rufio. Then, during "'97", that one dropped to reveal the old school logo, in which everyone went nuts.
There were also a few funny things that happened throughout the show, one of them being when someone threw a shirt up on stage. Matt picked it up and looked at it, laughed, and showed it to the crowd. It said "No Danzig = No Misfits". That got a pretty nice reaction from the crowd. I was pleased with the shirt. There were also Blood Pact groupies taking up Matt's entire side of the stage and Matt had a conversation with them about the benefits of the Blood Pact which somehow escalated into talk of getting the power of levitation and teleportation, which was pretty hilarious, I thought. Also, during Blue in the Face (which was dedicated to Johnny Cash), everyone was doing the gay "hold up your cell phone like a lighter" thing, in which Matt stops the song and says "I know you guys like to do that whole cell phone deal, but when your parents went to Kiss concerts or whatever back in the day, they held up fucking lighters." The crowd cheered and he laughed and went back into the song and tons of lighters popped up in the audience. Dan was pretty quiet throughout the show, except when he asked people what they wanted him to play for his acoustic portion.
After '97, the crowd waited around for an encore, cheering and chanting and hooting and hollering, but to no avail. Some douchebag with a walkietalkie came out on stage to tell the security that they weren't coming back out. Then, the booing started. I'm not sure if people were booing that guy, or the Trio, but it was pretty ridiculous. Then these two meatheads started riling up the crowd and booing and chanting "home town crowd" and all this stuff, making a bigger deal of it than it was. I mean, I wanted an encore, but then again, they played for like 2 hours and 15 minutes.
In summation, it was fucking awesome and almost emotional at times, regardless of the setlist lacking a little bit. I could expand on my love for this band and how much they have helped me or effected me as a person, but that is a whole different story. I am going to see them again tonight, with an 18+ crowd, so hopefully they change it up a bit (Lied My Face off and This is Getting Over You, pleaseeeee) and the crowd actually knows the words to Goddamnit, one of the best things to ever come out of Chicago. But when all is said and done, I'm sure I will fucking love it.
I failed to mention in that write-up that I had my good friends Armando, his brother, and Peditto with me, and it made the night that much more awesome and memorable.