Live Review: Alkaline Trio and LOWLIVES | O2 Academy, Bristol | 24/07/2024
Legendary Chicago punk-rockers Alkaline Trio led a night of energetic sing-along bangers and moshable riffs alongside rising stars of the alt-rock world LOWLIVES in a performance that won’t soon be forgotten.
Lowlives
Even before either of the night’s acts graced the stage there was an electric energy in the air. By the time LA based quartet LOWLIVES kicked things off the crowd were already ablaze with anticipation. Bringing the sounds of the 90s alternative explosion up to date with a healthy dose of modern British alt-rock, LOWLIVES filled the O2 Academy with a grinning, throwback energy reminiscent of acts like Weezer and Nirvana without sounding like a direct rip-off of any of their heroes. Opening with the title track from their recently released debut album ‘Freaking Out’, a non-stop post-grunge throwback with hints of early Foo Fighters, before leading into ‘Liar’, a more straightforward anthemic emo inspired number with an earworm lead guitar line.
Frontman Lee Downer led the band with confidence, embodying his heroes, from Kurt Cobain and Alkaline Trio’s own Matt Skiba to Rou Reynolds and Oli Sykes while carving out his own unique creative voice, feeling just as comfortable with gruff clean vocals and banshee-like screams. On the set’s biggest highlight ‘I Don’t Like You’, a song which Downer confessed “might be the dumbest song of the night”, the band led a sing-along that flowed perfectly into the headliner’s stadium ready punk-rock bangers.
Photo Credit: @davidedmundsphotography77
Alkaline Trio
Legendary Chicago punk rockers Alkaline Trio took the stage to a packed, sold-out crowd, with an ominous countdown introducing ‘Hot For Preacher’, the opening track from their newly released album Blood, Hair And Eyeballs. Even through the newer singles fans were screaming every lyric as loud as frontman Matt Skiba. The trio’s newest member, drummer Atom Willard who joined in 2023 after a storied career performing in bands such as The Offspring, Angels & Airwaves and Against Me!, fit in with Skiba and bassist/co-lead vocalist Dan Adriano’s chemistry perfectly, bringing his uniquely brash, relentlessly energetic style to both the band’s newer work and their large back catalogue of hits.
Through their close to three decades of releases Alkaline Trio have consistently delivered raucous, stadium ready punk-rock hits, the crowd at Bristol’s O2 Academy were treated to a selection of their best known tracks. From the fast-paced sing-along of ‘We’ve Had Enough’ to the Blink-182 style, tongue-in-cheek slacker rock of ‘Stupid Kid’ the trio’s co-lead vocalists traded off lines with a swaggering confidence while still delivering some lightning fast riffs. Both Skiba and Adriano knew when to take the lead and when to hype up their bandmates, delivering a bold performance even when out of the spotlight.
Despite performing their years of hits Alkaline Trio still managed to find time to fit in a handful of tracks from their latest album as well as some older deep cuts for the truly dedicated fans. The more melancholic ‘Sadie’, an album track from 2005’s Crimson, brought the energy down just enough to provide a break before launching into some of the band’s biggest hits whereas From Here To Infirmary era deep cut ‘Mr Chainsaw’ brought the some classic punk-rock energy for the many dedicated fans in the room and ‘Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs’ brought an upbeat, anthemic energy which hyped up the crowd just as much as the band’s older hits.
An undisputed highlight of the band’s set was the one-two-punch of two of their biggest hits, ‘Mercy Me’ and ‘Warbrain’, which had even the most casual fans screaming every single word. Throughout Alkaline Trio’s set it became clear that the band’s greatest skill is in choreographing their set to deliver the biggest impact, designing a rollercoaster of intensity by balancing the lower energy deep cuts and newer singles with their chart-toppers, leading into an explosion of swaggering, sing-along energy on ‘Mercy Me’ from the darker, slower-paced ‘Sadie’ and following up with fan favourite ‘Warbrain’ made for a much more memorable set than if they’d just run through the hits. Closing on the melodramatic ‘Time To Waste’, Alkaline Trio left the stage to calls for an encore which they happily gave in to with the emotional and cathartic ‘Radio’, leaving the show on a wholesome high note with ecstatic fans flooding out of the venue with a night full of earworm choruses in their heads.
Photo Credit: @davidedmundsphotography77