Alkaline Trio
I would never want to be an opening act. After seeing Alkaline Trio open for Rise Against last October, I don’t know if I’d even want to see another opening act. No matter how good you are – even if you are an audience member’s favorite band – you’re destined to be second best. Most of the crowd won’t know you, and may even talk through your performance. The part of the crowd that does know you will be angry that you didn’t play half the songs they wanted to hear and angry that the other people won’t shut up. You just can’t win.
This is basically what happened to Alkaline Trio at Roseland Ballroom. It did not help that virtually all of the songs they played came from their latest album, the disappointingly poppy Agony and Irony. “I Found Away” has a nice verse-chorus contrast and “In Vein” has a strong beat, but overall, the album pales in comparison to earlier entries. “Help Me” and “Live Young, Die Fast” sound like Fall Out Boy rejects and “Love Love Kiss Kiss” is just embarrassing. A drippy ballad from the guys who brought you “Private Eye”? Really? If a bunch of edgy songs had been thrown into the mix, I probably would be able to embrace “Calling All Skeletons” – which is incredibly catchy, hand claps and all. As is, though, it sounded like the first of many sell out songs.
Grade: C+
Rise Against
I had far from given up on Alkaline Trio as musicians – one listen to “We’ve Had Enough” is all they’d need to return to form – but I had given up on the night. I was so embittered by the opening that I seriously considered leaving before the main show. I knew it would only go downhill from there. I had listened to all of the Rise Against albums and had difficulty remembering any of the songs, mainly because most of them were equally bad. Appeal to Reason had its moments but The Sufferer and the Witness was abrasive and Siren Song of the Counterculture was unlistenable. Who wants to listen to a bloodcurdling, lyricless wail for a minute and a half (i.e. “State of the Union”)? And how is that music?
Thank God I decided to stay. Over the next two hours, I witnessed a revolution. I watched as fundamental concert rules were broken; I listened as my basic assumptions about live shows were proven wrong. The first basic assumption that was proven wrong was the idea that I needed to know the songs beforehand to get anything out of them. The second was that I needed to like the songs I knew to get a lot out of them. And as I made clear in previous paragraph, I neither liked nor knew most Rise Against songs.
Standing there, though, among 3000 rabid Rise Against followers, was incredible. They pounded their fists, pounded their thighs, and spit out every word of every song. It was like being taken in by a pack of rhythmically gifted wolves. Or, more to the point, it was like attending a left-wing Hitler Youth rally. The whole Hitler Youth comparison is an exaggeration of course, but it did seem hilariously plausible when the band told the crowd to “RISE” – that is, to raise one arm up in unison! Hippie Fascists Unite!
As it turned out, the most powerful songs ended up being the least aggressive. Frontman Tim McIllrath spend the majority of the show running and screaming across the stage, so it made the moments in which he pulled back euphoric. On the album, “Hero of War,” a bitter acoustic tribute to soldiers in Iraq, was poignant. Performed live, I got chills. Nearly as moving were the covers he played for two of the opening bands, Thrice and Gaslight Anthem. Instead of feigning enthusiasm for the openers by saying their names and insisting how “great” they were, McIllrath actually introduced and performed two of their songs. I would have been in the stratosphere if he had also performed one of the Alkaline Trio songs, but you can’t have everything.
The final fundamental rule Rise Against broke was that you should not end on your biggest hit because it will feel like pandering. In other words, true fans (/people who have connected with you the entire show) will feel that you are cynically dragging out a song you have lost affection for long ago. (See Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle,” Alkaline Trio’s “Radio,” Coldplay’s “Yellow,” etc.) Remarkably, Rise Against was able to end on “Prayer of the Refugee” and make it seem like a bold move. They knew just when to push forward and pull back. Moments before, they had played the Siren Song ballad “Swung Life Away.” Knowing the audience had sufficiently rested with that softer song, they tore into “Refugee” with a vengeance. The crowd, understandably, flipped out. They started jumping, thrusting, screaming…it was incredible.
I may not be a card-carrying member of the Fascist Hippie community, but rest assured: next time Rise Against comes to NY or DC, I am there.
Grade: A+
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