Fanboy's Trick or Treat: Alkaline Trio's Halloween at the Metro
Written: May 10 '04 (Updated May 10 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: It's Alkaline Trio, playing a great live show.
Cons: Technical foibles; piddly extras.
The Bottom Line: A 3.5... because it's still Alkaline Trio.
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| dancingpotato's Full Review: Alkaline Trio - Halloween At The Metro |
You have no idea how hard it was to find this one. As far as I can gather, Halloween at the Metro was released sometime ago; six months ago, minimum. It was delayed a couple of times, obviously, seeing as how it was shot on Halloween 2002. I found out about it and it soon became (to grossly exaggerate), my goal in life. I was not going to let myself die until I placed the DVD in my DVD player. This seems to be easier said than done, however, because the DVD proved impossible to find in my region. It’s only last week that I got wind of the fact that, apparently, there was a copy in a local record store. I went, I got, I conquered. It cost me 30 bucks… but it was worth it. The Trio… ON DVD! Do you not realize how cool this is?! Philistines.
Alkaline Trio – Halloween at the Metro is part of a series of concert DVD’s called The Show Must Go Off!, put out by Kung Fu Films, a branch of Joe Escalante’s Kung Fu Records. (Escalante is, of course, the bassist for venerable punks The Vandals) The series also includes performances by The Vandals, Mest, One Man Army, Guttermouth, Neil Hamburger (no, I don’t know who the hell he is either), Pistol Grip and Reel Big Fish.
The show opens with an upside down cross; ominous orchestral music plays, and soon the band launches into the first song, Hell Yes. First thing you notice: the sound quality is awesome. It’s obviously been tinkered with, because there’s no way a live recording would sound THIS good. That’s not a qualm per se; the sound still sounds grittier than a CD but it doesn’t fall to the common trap of making the drums sounds way too much like many live recordings do. The show is shot through five cameras (although, the ubiquitous ‘drum cam’ is thankfully used sparingly) and some angles tend to be a fraction of a second off from the sound. It’s not terribly distracting, and it doesn’t occur constantly, but it’s an annoyance just the same.
The show’s setlist is as follows:
1. Hell Yes
2. Madam Me
3. Maybe I’ll Catch Fire
4. Mr. Chainsaw
5. Take Lots With Alcohol
6. Cringe
7. Tuck Me In
8. I Lied My Face Off
9. Armageddon
10. Another Innocent Girl
11. Queen of Pain
12. Trouble Breathing
13. Goodbye Forever
14. Private Eye
15. Crawl
16. Nose Over Tail
17. Radio
18. 㤅
Despite this seemingly extensive list, the show only clocks in at barely over an hour. Unfortunately, the people at Kung Fu Films have unwisely decided to edit any between-song patter or song introductions. The songs simply flow into one another as they would on a record. This is more efficient, perhaps, but it takes away from the whole live aspect of the thing.
As far as the band’s performance goes, it’s spotless. Alkaline Trio are not exactly known for their complex guitar riffs, that’s a fact; live performances are no different. The drums, however… Derek Grant has chops. Mega chops, even. It doesn’t sound too apparent on the record, but the guy can drum. He’s probably second to Travis Barker, as far as I’m concerned, on the punk scene. Dan Andriano on the bass has chops, too; it makes me wonder why they don’t play all this stuff on the record. The vocals (guitarist Matt Skiba and Andriano share the duties) are as solid as ever.
There are bonus features on the disc, but they’re so sparse that they don’t affect much. The main attraction is a band commentary, which I’ve only checked out a few minutes of; it seems to be worth a listen, at the very least. Also included are a couple of fairly pointless multi-angle features; one of them lets you check out all the camera angles using the ANGLE button (wow, shocker there) and another one lets you listen to Mr. Chainsaw on a five-window split-screen. Rounding out the disc are a bunch of trailers, a photo gallery and a two-minute batch of bonus footage so lame (it consists mainly of personal friends of the Trio showing their costumes to the camera, and of Skiba trying on a Freddy claw) I fast-forward through it… and it’s two minutes long.
But all of this, really… it’s all nitpicking. Alkaline Trio are my favorite band; for all the disc’s flaws, it’s a great purchase for any fan. Of course not everyone is as dyed-in-the-wool as I am, and casual fans of the band will probably not want to shell out the bucks for it (although, to be fair, it’s only because I’m Canadian AND I live in the boonies that I paid thirty bucks for it) but anyone who can be caught singing Queen of Pain under their breath will dig this.
Recommended:
Yes
Viewing Format: DVD
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Epinions.com ID:
dancingpotato
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Location: Jonquiere, Quebec, Canada
Reviews written: 75
Trusted by: 57 members
About Me:
Sporadic is sexy, baby.
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