Alkaline Trio Performs Solid Classic Set @ Summerfest

It started out being quite a muggy afternoon due to the consistent rain down pouring throughout the day, then stopping, then starting again. By the time my brother and I got to Summerfest, the weather looked good at the time. There were three opening bands. One of them hailed from Kentucky, but the name escapes me. They weren't too bad. The second band I recognized. The A.K.A's from Philly. They were alright. They defiantly played the crowd and had some good fun. The singer didn't like the kids sitting in the front row that weren't standing up on the bleachers. It basically poured during a good half of their set. The drunks around us seemed to enjoy the rain. The last of the opening bands was a local band (I once again can't recall their name). They were alright, but I somewhat doubt this was their kind of crowd. Kramp and Adler (the two 102.1 radio DJ's that announced them) said they were the first radio station to play them before they released a CD. I wasn't that impressed.

Then came Alkaline Trio.

There was a cold chill coming from the Lakefront as the Chicago-based band took the stage. They opened with "Private Eye", which had all of the benches bouncing. After that song, they went right into "Clavicle" off of their Goddammit CD. There was very little said between songs, which is typical of any Alkaline Trio song. I think they prefer to pack as much songs as they possibly can. In no particular order, the rest of set list went like this:

Time to Waste

Mercy Me

In Vein

Help Me

Calling All Skeletons

Lost and Rendered

I Lied My Face Off

Goodbye Forever

Blue Carolina

This Could Be Love

Crawl

Armageddon

I Found Away

Love Love, Kiss Kiss

I think the highlight of the night was when they played "Blue Carolina" because I don't recall them ever playing that song live. You can tell from the set list that there was a pretty good split of the brand new songs from Agony and Irony, and the back catalog. The new songs they played were pretty great.  Love Love, Kiss Kiss (despite the org haters) is a really great song filled with classic Dan lyrics. 

I think the only new song that everyone knew some lyrics were to the single "Help Me", which has grown on me nicely. 

Behind us for a solid 45 minutes were kids yelling for "Radio". Of course Alkaline Trio came back for an encore to play it. They've been finishing with that song for quite some time. So with that in mind, everyone was belting out the chorus as loud as they could.

Overall, the night was a great time. Despite spending most of the night soaked and balancing on a slippery 6-inch beam (which felt more like a surfboard) my bro and I had fun.

I recommend checking them out on tour.

Pictured Below is Dan.