Alkaline Trio, Bristol 25/04/14
Fucking finally.
After trying to see them live for years with numerous mishaps, I finally ticked AK3 off my "bands to see bucket list". I've been a big fan for about 4 years now and have missed them three times previously for one reason or another.
Being a fan, it's pretty obvious I'm going to like the show. This was a no fucking around set by the guys, moving from song to song with little down time. I was a little disappointed by the setlist for a couple of reasons. Firstly, if I was to say I have 5 favourite AK3 songs, they played 1
Obviously this will happen with bands with as large a back catalogue as they do, and I checked out their previous shows set lists beforehand to avoid being too disappointed. But that being said, a band with 8 albums behind them really should be varying up their set lists more and not playing the exact same songs in the exact same order all tour.
That said, the crowd were better than they usually are in this area. I've always felt Bristol crowds don't seem to get involved as much as they should. Luckily, this lot were more lively, with "Private Eye" & "Stupid Kid" being pretty intense. Wish they were more up for "Warbrain" though.
Best track was easily the last son of the encore "Radio", weakest was "Balanced On A Shelf" but that's likely down to it being a song from a little known EP only the more hardcore fans would be aware of.
But yeah, very enjoyable show. And thanks to them still having loads of songs I need to hear live, definitely coming back for more.
And yes, I do find it amusing that I'm posting about bands like this whilst having Taylor Swift plastered all over my profile.