Alkaline Trio, Cursive, and The Dear and Departed
March 23, 2010
Revolution Live, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Written by Kate Dingle
Tuesday night, a line of slow moving concertgoers shuffled inside Revolution Live to witness the return of veteran punk rockers Alkaline Trio to South Florida.
The night started got started with two amazing opening acts.
The first group of rockers to hit the stage was the Orange County, C.A. based quartet, The Dear and The Departed. Fronted by one of L.A. Ink’s resident artists, Dan Smith. Fans were treated to performances of tracks from both of their full-length albums, Something Quite Peculiar and their most recent release Chapters. Although the crowd didn’t seem to know much of their music, they didn’t seem to care as they moved along with the inked-up Smith as he belted out tunes like “Hometown Hero” and “Day To Day”.
Quickly following TD&D was Cursive out of Omaha, Nebraska. As soon as the Midwesterners took the stage, the building seemed to fill quickly for the second headliner. Having been around since 1995, the men of Cursive performed like seasoned veterans to what seemed like a packed house. With a catalog of seven full-length albums and countless singles and EPs, front man Tim Kasher and crew had plenty of material to choose from. So it was no surprise that the set list spanned a good portion of their fifteen-year musical journey. Highlights from the set included “Dorothy At Forty”, “Mama, I’m Swollen” and “Let Me Up”.
As soon as Cursive retreated to the wings, the crowd seemed to retreat to anywhere but there. It was apparent that many had not come to see Alkaline Trio. But the show must go on.
By the time the headliners took the stage, concert goers had come and left and were ready to get on with it. And it seemed as though Matt Skiba, Dan Andriano, and Derek Grant wanted to get on with it as well. After opening their set with “This Addiction”, the trio followed up with “Armageddon”, “Emma” and “We’ve Had Enough”. There wasn’t a whole lot of chatter from the boys from Illinois, and it seemed like they were there more out of obligation than anything else. For a portion of their set Skiba’s vocals seemed off, and the only way to hear what he was singing was when the crowd overpowered his voice. Nevertheless, there was plenty of moshing and crowd surfing, and die-hard fans didn’t seem to notice the issue with the vocals. Other tunes from their set included “Mr. Chainsaw”, “Private Eye”, and “Sadie”.
It was an interesting night of music to say the least. More people showed up for The Dear and The Departed and Cursive than Alkaline Trio. The two openers gave more of a show than the headliner. And not to mention they actually seemed like they wanted to be there (unlike Alkaline Trio). Ultimately I was disappointed, and I should have just stayed home and listened to the music.
Photos by Christina Mendenhall
Cursive
The Dear and Departed
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