Alkaline Trio + Bayside + The Murderburgers @ Birmingham Institute – 24th April 2014
Alkaline Trio have been around for 18 years. Having only gotten into the band in the last few years, I’m relatively new to the party but it’s not hard to see why they have had such a massive, committed fan base. Eight albums into their career (not including 2011’s, mainly acoustic, ‘Damnesia’) the Chicago based band return to UK shores supporting their 2013 release ‘My Shame Is True’. The album, I personally saw as a massive return to form after the somewhat disappointing previous effort, ‘This Addiction’. With them tonight they have brought Bayside, a band whose own recognition status seems to be slowly, but surely, growing with every release. First up though are the superbly named Scottish punks, The Murderburgers.
In their own words The Murderburgers “(write) songs about being flat broke and going mental. Most unhappy when not on tour. Most mentally unstable when on tour.” This statement immediately proved to be true, with beaming smiles across the trio’s faces, it was obvious that they were having a blast. It was also obvious why Alkaline Trio had chosen them for support. The band’s lively set was an in your face assault comprised of fast guitars, fast drumming and even faster vocals. So fast in fact, that I could barely understand a word lead singer Fraser was saying. Though it matters not, as neither the band nor half the room who seem to be enjoying them, care.
Bayside, on the other hand, are known for complex guitars, bombastic drums and the unmistakeable tones of Anthony Raneri’s voice. They prove that punk rock or emo doesn’t have to be simple and/or fast. They enter the stage to a very respectable applause from the audience, which is made up, almost entirely, of those die hard Alkaline Trio fans I mentioned earlier. They jump straight into ‘Big Cheese’, the huge drum-driven opening song off their sixth and most recent full length ‘Cult’. Already, lead guitarist Jack O’Shea shows off his guitar skills with a two hand tapping solo, which is note for note perfect.
The band runs through their set at breakneck speed, barely stopping to breathe after each song before jumping straight into the next. With the main focus of the set to show off some of their newer songs, with ‘Big Cheese’, ‘Pigsty’ and ‘Stuttering’ all showing why ‘Cult’ was so well received. Fan favourites such as ‘Devotion & Desire’ and ‘Montauk’ mean the small contingent of Bayside fans are completely satisfied. A cover of Elvis Costello’s ‘Oliver’s Army’ off their recent covers EP is an odd set choice but works surprisingly well. I think Bayside definitely gained a few new fans after tonight and I, for one, would love to see them on a headlining tour of their own.
Alkaline Trio arrive to a chorus of cheers and rapturous applause from the packed out Institute. Many of their fans will have seen Alkaline Trio before, having grown up with them. Yet that doesn’t mean any people are any less excited to see this evening. They arrive on stage slightly late due to the support acts running late, yet I doubt anyone in the room even noticed, as soon as they burst into the opening song. ‘This Could Be Love’ is catchy as hell and the dark-yet-fun melodies make it impossible to not hum/sing along to a song which, at the time of its release, the album it came from ‘Good Mourning’ was seen as a change of direction of sorts for Trio. Now it’s a firm fan favourite and a staple of their live sets.
The band goes through their set of obvious fan favourites such as ‘Cringe’, ‘Every Thug Needs A Lady’ and ‘Sadie’ which are met with huge sing-alongs as would be expected. But it’s the newer songs that really stole the show tonight, ‘I Wanna Be A Warhol’, ‘Young Lovers’ and ‘She Lied To The FBI’ sounding fresh, it seems that they have a new lease of life on stage. There is however, little interaction with the audience throughout the night. It also seemed that the two frontmen, Dan Adriano and Matt Skiba, both seemed to be going through the motions during some songs. ‘Sadie’ and ‘Time To Waste’ didn’t seem to have the same intensity as they do on record. The same can’t be said for drummer Derrick Frost who plays the whole set as if his life depended on it. It also happened to be his birthday and the crowd gave him a suitable rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ before Trio left the stage.
They returned to play an encore of two of their biggest hits, ‘Private Eye’ and the much loved ‘Radio’. The crowd laps them up and there are sing-alongs aplenty, particularly during Radio. Being a band for 18 years, and 8 albums in, Alkaline Trio did their best this evening to cater to fan base that has no doubt been divided over the years as Trio tried different things over the course of those albums. But there is definitely a sense of enormous satisfaction as those closing bars of ‘Radio’ ring out in the Institute, and it’s fair to say that, despite appearing slightly lacklustre at some points during the set, Alkaline Trio still know how to put on a performance that make sure every person in the room goes away happy.
Review – Francis Sebestjanowicz
Photos – Steve Gerrard