Alkaline Trio - ABC, Glasgow, 24/5/2010

  by Tony Gaughan

published: 1 / 6 / 2010

intro

At the ABC in Glasgow, Tony Gaughan watches a monotonous and late starting set from Chicago-based punk/grunger heroes the Alkaline Trio out on the road to showcase their new album, 'This Addiction'

The Chicago-based Alkaline Trio were in Glasgow to showcase their brand new offering 'This Addiction'. Despite an eternity of a wait in the packed ABC, diehards were not too bothered about awaiting for their punk/grunge heroes to hit the stage. It was a tale of two halves as the band's new record seems a big shift in direction from the dark broody punk of their past to a far more commercial pop sound of Green Day or Blink 182. With seven albums of punk under their belt they were not, however, short on material,which again asks the question why keep their audience waiting? Vocals were traded by guitarist Matt Skiba and bassist Dan Andriano throughout. The older stuff went down much better than the band's obvious change in direction. The crowd seemed well up for 'Armageddon' and 2001 classic 'Sadie'. The highlight was the Ramones-esque 'My Chainsaw' and 'Private Eye' which sparked a frenzy among their punky followers, but they met with a fairly static response for newer offerings such us 'Dine Dine My Darling' or 'This Addiction'. The set became too samey with one three minute song running into the next. The crowd seemed more interested in the wave after wave of crowd surfing than the set itself. Drummer Derek Grant took his turn on vocal duty with Skiba moving to drums and Andriano to guitar for a rendition of American punk stalwarts the Misfits' 'Attitude' and a finale of 'Radio' from their 2000 album, 'Maybe I'll Catch Fire'. They just didn't tonight.

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