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Chicago punks cheer up (sort of) at Summit Music Hall
Alkaline Trio stormed Denver Monday night, delivering their doom-and-gloom lyrics in grinning, giddy style.
On the eve of the release of the Chicago band's eighth album, they shared the stage with fellow Illinois rockers The Smoking Popes and Denver pop-punk set The Gamits. Trio singer Matt Skiba, who often appears in all black and sporting cadaverous eyeliner, showed up in a bright blue shirt and spent much of the evening talking about how happy he was. Beer may have been a factor.
Still, it made for a thrilling evening, especially in the front row. In between songs (the band covered most of their albums, from 1998's "Goddamnit" to today's brand new "Damnesia"), Skiba managed to name-check a couple of his heroes (Smoking Popes singer Josh Caterer and Black Flag's Bill Stevenson, both in attendance), play a strangely countrified version of a Violent Femmes song and launch himself from the stage in the most ill-timed, reckless and thoroughly awesome attempt at crowd surfing the Summit has seen in a while.
It was all so much fun that Skiba failed to notice that the set was winding down until the last song was already over. — Matt Farley, Metromix
