It's been a mighty long time since the boys in The Alkaline Trio have played a club here in Orlando, this time around, in support of "Good Mourning" they have chosen the house of blues as the venue, the disney run establishment holds around 2,000, which that night, meant 2,000 trucker hats, dickies and studded belts.

I arrived at around 7 with about 15 minutes to spare. After the nazis known as HOB security took away my camera, i went inside. I couldnt help but notice the hot topic clad suburbinites with Alkaline Trio shirts already on. The first band of the night was Avoid One Thing, they sounded alot like Dropkick or something, that sort of "we're punk, lets get really drunk, cuz we're also sort of Irish" sound. These guys pretty much blew, no one was into them. Which is good, i hate when everyone is into a band that totally blows.

Next was Pitch Black, the guitarist was an original member of The Nerve Agents, which immediately turned me on to them, since i love them. When they came out they immediately gave off an AFI type vibe, spooky, fast punk. The crowd wasnt into these guys either, which sort of bummed me out because they put on a good show, thumbs up to these guys.

Next up was indie rock darlings Pretty Girls Make Graves, in my opinion (which was not shared by the "punks") they were the best band of the night, energetic and musically flawless, these cats from Seattle put on one heck of a set, unfortunetly, once again, the crowd was dead as a doornail, with the exception of the kids in the front who were singing along, the band ran through "Sad Girls" "Speakers Push Air" "Liquid Change" "More Sweet Soul" "Ghosts on the radio" and a some new stuff. which rounded out the 40 minutes.

Ok, now the Alkaline Trio were at one time one of my favorite bands, their early stuff were some of the first punk records i ever bought, but this new shit just isn't cuttin it. They took a million years to set up, and when they curtains were pulled away...they were not there...what was there? A Pentagram on the drum kit, a big backdrop with the logo, and a cross...ok...whatever...they came out all spooky which doesnt float my boat, you guys know how AFI made that switch from sounding like NOFX to being scary? This is what they are trying to do here...except they are still pop punk. They came out and started off with a bang (sarcasm) with "This Could Be Love" and then went into "We've Had Enough". A paralyzed person could have had more stage energy. Judging from the first couple of songs, i knew this was going to be "we never put out anything before 2001" night at the house of blues...everyone was pretty into them, they knew all the words and shit, which bummed me out cuz it's encouraging this new spooky shit. Too much new stuff...actually one song off of the new album is too much. What has become of Chicago's former finest?