CHICAGO’S ALKALINE TRIO IMPRESS ON SOLD OUT MANCHESTER SHOW

LIVE REVIEW | ALKALINE TRIO | O2 RITZ, MANCHESTER | 28/07/24

It’s been a couple of years since Alkaline Trio were last in the UK, playing a bunch of co-headline shows with emo band Taking Back Sunday. This time they’re flying solo, with many of their shows selling out, including their second night at Manchester’s excellent venue, The Ritz, on a very hot Sunday evening.

Opening the show were UK based rock band Lowlives, who played a raucous set of songs and got the crowd suitably warmed up. Blasting through songs from across their discography such as ‘Hey You’, ‘Swan Dive’, ‘Liar’, they also got a great sing-a-long with the crowd on ‘I Don’t Like You’. It was an enthusiastic performance and drummer Luke Johnson looked like he was having the time of his life!

Alkaline Trio hit the stage to the opening track, ‘Hot For Preacher‘, from latest album ‘Blood, Hair And Eyeballs‘, getting a great response from the crowd. However, things really kicked into gear with their next – and much older – song, ‘We’ve Had Enough‘, the crowd going wild as they sang along to the 2003 classic.

Mainly touring to promote ‘Blood, Hair And Eyeballs’, Alkaline Trio played several songs from that album, including the title track, singles ‘Bad Time’ and ‘Versions Of You’ and ‘Break’, but filled the rest of their set with many songs from across their career, including a handful of surprises. Many songs came from 2001’s ‘From Here To Infirmary‘, including ‘Mr. Chainsaw’, ‘Take Lot’s With Alcohol’, ‘Armageddon’, ‘Private Eye’ and, one of the biggest surprises of the night as Alkaline Trio are known to not include it in their live shows often, ‘Stupid Kid‘, which got a huge response from the crowd!

Elsewhere, songs as varied as ‘Calling All Skeletons’, ballad ‘Sadie’, early song ‘Cringe’, B-side ‘Warbrain’, ‘Every Thug Needs A Lady’, ‘Mercy Me’ and ‘Blue Carolina’ were played, each one played with passion from the Trio, including new drummer Atom Willard. At one point, guitarist Matt Skiba even donned the sunglasses of a member of the crowd for a song!

Following an excellent rendition of the classic ‘This Could Be Love‘ before the encore, Alkaline Trio returned to the stage for one final song, eschewing the usual three song encore for the absolute classic that is ‘Radio‘, which featured the band and the crowd raising the roof as they sang along to the chorus (“I’ve got a big fat fucking bone to pick with you my darling…”). Alkaline Trio absolutely nailed it with this show, playing with the passion that’s come to be expected from them, and everyone left extremely sweaty but also very happy!

Alkaline Trio’s Blood, Hair And Eyeballs tour continues across the UK and Europe.