30 seconds into the set of Albany’s Drug Church, you’d be forgiven for thinking that they were the headliners tonight. The pit bounces, the fists rise to the air, and an already-packed Theatre Beanfield is absolutely going off at 8:15 in the evening! They sound a lot like The Bronx in their brand of hardcore, though vocalist Patrick Kindlon sounds distinctively more Chuck Ragan in his gravelly delivery. “Unlicensed Guidance Counselor” sounds particularly enormous, as the grim instruction of “push your sister’s boyfriend down the stairs!” is screamed along with particular vitriol, and by the time things wrap up with a thunderous “Weed Pin,” you wonder if the floor will have anything left for tonight’s headliner! A riotous 40 minutes, and surely not too long before they are headlining this place themselves.
Drug Church Setlist:
- Grubby
- Avoidarama
- World Impact
- Tiresome
- But Does it Work?
- Bliss Out
- Fun’s Over
- Unlicensed Hall Monitor
- Unlicensed Guidance Counselor
- Athlete on Bench
- Myopic
- Million Miles of Fun
- Weed Pin
As Patrick put it when thanking Alkaline Trio during their set, “30 years of incredible records!” Hard to argue with that! When the Chicago trio announced this show back in October of last year (their first club show in Montreal since 2006, astonishingly), there was no way I was missing this, jumping onto the presale and grabbing my ticket at the earliest possible opportunity. I’ve been listening to this band since the beginning, so unless the band have completely gone off the rails during the 7 years frontman Matt Skiba was off playing with Blink 182, I know I am going to love it tonight. And I absolutely do.
New record “Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs” is a phenomenal return for the band, unquestionably my album of the year so far (granted, we’re only 2 ½ months in!) Album opener “Hot for Preacher” opens the show in storming fashion, the bellowing “woah oh oh!!!” intro sounding incredibly sinister in parallel with the smoky red stage lights, while the classic punk rock of “Break” slots so seamlessly into the set that you would be hard-pressed to know if it was brand new or a classic from many years ago. The title track, “Bad Time,” and “Versions of You” all get an airing tonight and sound fantastic, too.
Of course, it’s the old songs that really get the place bouncing, and I’m singing so hard through the second song, “We’ve Had Enough,” and then “Take Lots with Alcohol,” that I feel my voice starting to fail three songs in! 2001’s “Mr Chainsaw” gets me particularly introspective, with its closing lyric of “In case you’re wondering, I’m singing about growing up and giving in” hitting home 23 years later; we are all undeniably grown up now! That 2001 “From Here To Infirmary” record unsurprisingly gets the most representation in the set, culminating in a double-whammy of the timeless “Stupid Kid” and “Private Eye” leading into the mammoth “Time to Waste” (from the equally wonderfully 2005 “Crimson” record) to close out the main set. Name a better 3-song salvo to close out an Alkaline Trio show… I’ll wait.
Throughout the show, you truly get a sense of how perfectly the band mesh after so long together. Matt’s vocals were always more punky and raw, in contrast to the deep smooth vocals of bassist Dan Andriano; a perfect foil. It’s usually one or the other taking lead vocal duty, but on occasions such as “Mercy Me” where lead vocal duty is shared, the complementarity is striking. Held together by Atom Willard’s thunderous drumming, it’s both wonderfully chaotic and seamlessly cohesive.
While more than half the 20-song set draws from either “From Here To Infirmary” or “Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs,” the other 9 songs are drawn from 6 others in the discography, and there are so many forgotten gems in there! “Calling All Skeletons” (from 2008’s “Agony & Irony”) and “Warbrain” (from the 2007 “Remains” compilation of EP and B-Sides) are personal standouts, but there’s honestly not a weak song in the whole set.
The encore closes out with the timeless “Radio” and yet another deafening singalong from the rabid crowd, which gets even louder when the band cut their sound completely to let us sing the chorus back to them unaccompanied. At 75 minutes, it’s perhaps a little shorter than it could be, given the 10 albums of material they could choose from. But perhaps that’s just me, not wanting the show of the year to end.
Welcome back Alkaline Trio; just don’t leave it so long next time, OK?!
Review – Simon Williams
Photos – Kieron Yates
