First and foremost, I acknowledge the fact that this is an Alkaline Trio tour and the other bands are supporting bands and not headlining acts. This does not change the fact that the Lawrence Arms are my favorite band and particularly the main reason in my going to this show, though I do like Alkaline Trio and the Draft as well.
The show got going at 8 with the last mentioned of those bands, the Draft. To all of the crowd's amusement, the front-man was completely piss-ass drunk and kept calling us a bunch of "fucking turkeys." Great stuff. He constantly slurred his words and didn't really announce what the song titles were (for one, he simply said "This song is about Darth Vader"); according to him, one of their other songs is apparently called "Lawnchair." They did play with a ton of ferocity however, and made for an awesome show. I got to meet the guitarist afterwards and he was a really cool and mellow guy.
The Lawrence Arms came on about fifteen minutes after the Draft wrapped up their set. My anticipation for this set had been building for about the last two months, and it felt great to finally see them live. They began their set with "Hesitation Station" and closed it up with "Like a Record Player," playing only one song with a more mellow tone to it in between. I was surprised they kept such a fast-paced theme to their set; most of the bands I've previously seen mix up the fast-paced pieces with some slower songs. I loved it though -- I don't think I stopped moving until the last chord of the last song. During the break in "Porno and Snuff Films," they started playing their ode to the Warped Tour (the bonus track from Oh! Calcutta!) for about thirty seconds before they kicked back into "Porno." Also, after their fourth or fifth song, they had a guy from the audience come up and propose to his girlfriend onstage, which is just a great example of how cool those guys really are. They played one of the most energetic sets that I've ever seen and had the crowd moving pretty well, which is saying a lot considering about 80% of the people there were only attending to see the Alkaline Trio.
Alkaline Trio came on at 9:45 and played a 95-minute set -- that's incredible. They played every song off of Goddamnit as promised and closed out their set with "Radio" (like every other set they've played on this tour). Though I had focused much of my excitement toward the Larry Arms for this show, A3 played one hell of an incredible show. The crowd was just unstoppable when they were playing; you couldn't hear either Matt or Daniel singing because the entire venue was singing the lyrics right back at them. For every song. Even though I didn't know a whole lot of the older songs from Goddamnit, I had a great time in the crowd. Their stage presence was just massive.
Great show by all three bands. Probably the best show I've ever been to. Incredible stuff.
Set lists:
The Draft
- Alive or Dead
- Wired
- Bordering and about four or five other songs I couldn't exactly identify
- Hesitation Station
- On with the Show
- Turnstiles
- 100 Resolutions
- Porno and Snuff Films
- The Devil's Takin' Names
- Great Lakes / Great Escapes
- Key to the City
- Beyond the Embarrassing Style
- Cut It Up
- Chapter 13: The Hero Appears
- Necrotism...
- Like a Record Player
- Cringe
- Cop
- San Francisco
- Nose Over Tail
- As You Were
- Enjoy Your Day
- Clavicle
- My Little Needle
- Southern Rock
- Messages from Kathlene
- Trouble Breathing Matt acoustic:
- Sorry About That
- Blue in the Face Daniel acoustic:
- Blue Carolina
- one song I couldn't identify
- Good Fucking Bye
- Dethbed
- Burn
- Private Eye
- This Could Be Love
- Armageddon
- Queen of Pain
- Radio