Alkaline Trio: Blood, Hair, And Eyeballs The Tour 30/07/2024

Rating: ★★★★★

O2 Academy Glasgow Rating: ★★★★★

Where we stayed: Ibis Budget Glasgow (again)

SETLIST:

Hot For Preacher
We’ve Had Enough
Take Lots With Alcohol
Bad Time
Versions Of You
Mr. Chainsaw
One Hundred Stories
Calling All Skeletons
Cringe
Break
Armageddon
Sadie
Mercy Me
Warbrain
Crawl
Blood, Hair, And Eyeballs
Stupid Kid
Private Eye
Time To Waste
Radio (Encore)

Paul and I only started listening to Alkaline Trio a couple of years ago, when we became interested in exploring Matt Skiba’s other work before joining Blink-182 in 2015. Blink-182 has a long and complicated history and we were discussing it in depth, as Paul is very knowledgeable about the subject, being a huge fan since childhood. MS replaced the band’s co-founder Tom Delonge for seven years before his surprising and triumphant return last year for their latest album, ‘One More Time…’ MS was positively received by long-time fans as he worked closely alongside Mark Hoppus to create the beloved albums ‘California’ in 2016 and ‘Nine’ in 2019. I’m hoping for some new music from AT, now TD has returned. ‘Blood, Hair, And Eyeballs’, the album this tour is based on, was released in January. I have listened to it countless times, as the songs are all so catchy and well produced. I also found one of their older albums, ‘This Addiction’ (2010), in a second-hand music shop and I have enjoyed it a lot as well. Neither of us realised Atom Willard had only joined AT last year, after the departure of the band’s longest-serving drummer. Derek Grant had worked on their latest album but left due to mental health reasons and wanting to pursue other interests. Paul knows AW from his Angels & Airwaves days (also with Tom Delonge) and showed me an early music video of theirs. He has barely changed. We travelled down from Inverness to Glasgow on the day of the event. I’m always confident we will make it on time when Paul drives us down, as I can never fully trust public transport. We queued for an hour and a half before the doors opened at 7pm, which proved to be worthwhile as we were the first two to reach the barrier inside. I am still struggling to make sense of the O2 Priority queue, as we were all let in at the same time.

LOWLIVES came onstage at 8pm sharp, exactly an hour after the doors opened, and kept everyone energised by performing so confidently. They are a quartet from Los Angeles, California. Their debut album, ‘FREAKING OUT’, came out a couple of months ago and has received a lot of praise. The band is made up of Lee Downer (vocals/guitar), Steve Lucarelli (bass), Luke Johnson (drums) and Jaxon Moore (guitar). It took me a while to figure out which band they instantly reminded me of but now I realise it is Nirvana, as frontman LD looks and sounds like Kurt Cobain. I assume the resemblance is intentional, as he named Nirvana one of his biggest influences in an interview. Unfortunately, the sound quality wasn’t great on this occasion and it was very difficult to hear the songs clearly. I even had a hard time trying to decipher the audio clips I recorded during their set, which is a shame. I did make out when LD nicknamed SL “Handsome Steve”, which prompted a few chuckles from the crowd, and I thought it was nice of them to get us to cheer loudly for AT. The drums seemed by far the most prominent instrument to us, though it was probably down to the dodgy set-up. I wish I could have heard LD’s vocals better, as he sounds fantastic on Spotify. Paul thought they were a little on the heavy side for him, so I would say I enjoyed them more by default. I listened to their album when I got home and still think ‘FREAKING OUT’, the title track and song they opened with, is my favourite. I would probably rank ‘LOSER’ second, though I would benefit from listening to the full album again. All of their songs have well-written/relatable lyrics and remind me of similar rock songs from the 90s. It was refreshing to hear new songs in that same style, which has been sorely missed in recent years. Each of the band members had an incredible stage presence and made sure we were all having a blast, watching and listening to them. We also thought the image of the man smiling widely on LJ’s drum kit was hilariously random, though we couldn’t tell who it was meant to be.

We couldn’t find any information regarding set times, as we grew restless to see AT. They ended up coming on at 9:10pm, after the photographers got into position and checked their watches a few times. The band greeted us with big waves and smiles as they took to the stage and opened with one of their new songs, ‘Hot For Preacher’, before running through their most used setlist from this tour. I know they added the beloved ‘Every Thug Needs A Lady’ to one of their previous setlists but I didn’t care which songs we got, as it was our first time seeing them. The sound was muffled at the beginning, the same as it was for LOWLIVES, but thankfully got fixed by the third or fourth song. The crowd went absolutely wild during ‘Armageddon’ in particular, which was one of the few songs to be introduced by name. We had to duck several times for security to grab hold of oncoming crowd-surfers and the energy in the room was off the scale. I loved every moment of it but worried about Paul, as I know he prefers to be seated. It turned out he came out of the experience unscathed, which was a relief. Maybe there is hope for more standing gigs together in the future! Taking photos for the blog was tricky and I didn’t capture many moments on camera, as I was fully immersed and the band didn’t move around as much as LOWLIVES. Most of my attention was on MS, as we knew him already and he interacted with the crowd a lot more than his counterpart, Dan Andriano. He stole the show by borrowing a pair of funky black sunglasses from a fan and bragging about his new Scottish haircut. I didn’t know he would be on the lookout for sunglasses, or I would have come prepared. Though, I doubt I could have found a pair better suited to him than the Batman-esque ones he ended up with. DA reminisced about performing in The Garage the last time they were in Glasgow and asked who all had been there, before thanking us for coming out on a Tuesday night – even though it felt like a Saturday. AW was mesmerising and really stood out, even though I normally get distracted by guitars and don’t pay as much attention to the drums. They closed with one of their most popular songs, ‘Radio’, which is truly beautiful if you ignore the dark lyrics!

I was overjoyed when the sound issues were resolved, as I could hear each of the individual instruments and properly soak it all in. I read afterwards that MS was feeling under the weather but I never would have known from his fantastic performance and cheery attitude. Sometimes I have difficulty hearing the bass amongst all the other sounds going on but I had no problem with DA, as he continually wowed us all with his skills. I asked Paul what his favourite song from the night was and he answered ‘Mercy Me’ without any hesitation. It is his favourite song of theirs, so I fully expected that to be the answer. My highlight might have been ‘Stupid Kid’ but it’s hard to tell, as it all seemed to be over before I could fully process it. I could have listened to them for a lot longer and didn’t feel ready to leave the venue once the music stopped and the lights came up. At one point, MS threw a guitar pick in my direction and it bounced off my hand and disappeared under the barrier. I’ve been kicking myself for not trying harder to catch it, even though I saw it coming. I just froze, in the moment. It gives me another excuse to see them again. I’ll make sure to stand closer to MS’s side of the stage, for a better chance of actually nabbing one. Paul managed to get me one of the three elusive LOWLIVES picks which were left on the microphone stand after the band exited the stage. A member of staff handed them out at a fan’s request and he got lucky. I hope AT don’t take too long to return to The UK, as they obviously have a passionate fan base over here. We bought a couple of t-shirts from the merch stall but they didn’t come in a great range of sizes, as most had sold out before they even reached Glasgow. I was admiring the orange one with the band members on the front but apparently it is in high demand and they only had it in XXL. Paul picked their tour t-shirt with all of the dates on the back and I opted for the classic heart and skull design. I have a feeling I’m going to get a lot of wear out of it!

GALLERY