WORDS WILL MAXWELL / IMAGES JOE JONES
American Punk-Rock heroes Alkaline Trio bring their Blood, Hair and Eyeballs Tour to Manchester, for the first of two dates at the o2 Ritz.
Receiving a heroes welcome as they take to the stage, Matt Skiba (vocals, guitar) and Dan Andriano (vocals, bass) are in funeral-style suits, whilst Atom Willard (drums) adds a red tie to his suit, in the style of My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way or Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong. The emo vibes are already strong and they haven’t even started playing yet. This is Willard’s first tour with the band after long-serving drummer Derek Grant left the band last year.
Manchester is awash with venues of all different sizes and qualities, and the Ritz is one of my favourites. If you arrive early enough, you can secure an amazing vantage point on the balcony. For those of us on the floor, the high stage still allows for a great view of all the action, and almost feels like the band are towering over us.
“Hot For Preacher” kicks things off, with the “woah woah woah’s” reverberating around the room, before the raucous anthem “We’ve Had Enough” gets the energy going.
Skiba and Andriano trade lead vocal duties all night, and Andriano’s first song is “Take Lots With Alcohol”. “From Here To Infirmary” is one of my favourite ever albums, so to get six tracks from it is personally very pleasing. Looking around the audience over the evening, it’s clear how deeply emotional the fans are, and how much these songs and this band mean to them.
Latest album Blood, Hair and Eyeballs obviously gets a good airing too, with “Bad Time and Versions of You” going down as well as the classics. It’s their first album since 2018’s Is This Thing Cursed? as Matt Skiba spent the years in between recording and touring with Blink 182, replacing Tom DeLonge whilst he was on hiatus.
The frenetic “Mr Chainsaw” is an early highlight, whilst “One Hundred Stories”, “Calling All Skeletons” and “Cringe” delight the old-school fans. The dark, angst-ridden, powerful lyrics cut deep and solidify that intense connection between the artist and the fans.
This masterclass of Emo-Punk continues with the fast-paced “Armageddon” and fan favourite “Mercy Me”. Crowd interaction is at a minimum except for the usual pleasantries, but Andriano dedicates “Crawl” to The Smith’s Andy Rourke, who passed away last year. Citing him as an influence on his playing, you can’t help but feel the whole band influenced them, the tales of despair and dark humour just delivered in a different style. The song ends with them mixing in lyrics from The Smiths “There Is A Light”.
Relationship break-up anthem “Stupid Kid”, the catchy “Private Eye” and “Time To Waste” have this famous dance floor on springs bouncing, whilst dozens of crowd surfers are sent over the barrier before the band leave the stage.
Chants of “one more song” ring out, and they duly oblige and return with “Radio”, giving us one last chance to release our anger and emotions.
Despite the dark nature of the evening, this was a thoroughly enjoyable evening in the presence of one of the greats of the genre.
SETLIST:
1/ Hot for Preacher
2/ We’ve Had Enough
3/ Take Lots with Alcohol
4/ Bad Time
5/ Versions of You
6/ Mr. Chainsaw
7/ One Hundred Stories
8/ Calling All Skeletons
9/ Cringe
10/ Break
11/ Armageddon
12/ Sadie
13/ Mercy Me
14/ Warbrain
15/ Crawl
16/ Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs
17/ Stupid Kid
18/ Private Eye
19/ Time to Waste
Encore:
20/ Radio
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My life is a soundtrack, i track my life through music, photography is my passion, my escape, my expression. Without both i have pieces missing, thankfully i’m blessed and get to combine both.
Born in Manchester, lived in Australia for 22 years where i was heavily involved in the Australian Music Industry, firstly in bands (Singer) and then managing bands (all original), I moved back to the UK, Wales specifically 10 years ago
