Live Review: Alkaline Trio @ The Academy, Manchester

Last night, the sublime, goth-punk Alkaline Trio returned to the stage at Manchester Academy and proceeded to blow the crowd away with an awesome set which, perhaps surprisingly, focused on the “classics” rather than their more recent material.

Opening with a storming rendtion of “This Addiction” the title track to their latest album, followed by a blistering rendition of “Armagedon” the crowd was whipped into a frenzy which rarely let up throughout the 21 songs.

“Dead on the Floor”, “Off the Map” and “Fine” joined “This Addiction” in a setlist that completely ignored the bands other most recent album “Agony & Irony” (though to be fair they had toured that album last year) and only feature one song off “Crimson” (the sublime “Sadie”).

This was a bit of a shame as I had been looking forward to hearing “Mercy Me” and “Calling All Skeletons” however the inclusion of “Another Innocent Girl”, “Mr Chainsaw”, “This Could Be Love” and “My Friend Peter” alongside “Private Eye” and “Emma” more than made up for their absence.

The encore was perhaps the highlight of the evening as Skibba took up the drums, Dan switched to guitar and drummer Derek took up bass for rendtions of “Fine” and The Misfits’ “Angelfuck” before closing (unsurpisingly) with “Radio”.

After missing the band on their UK tour last year, it was great to finally see them again some 5 years after seeing them last. Fingers crossed they’ll be back again next year, though if you can’t wait that long, they are headling next weekends Slamdunk festival…