For Alkaline Trio, music progresses as love continues

The band's fans still dig its debut album, eight years after its release.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
For most bands, debut albums -- especially indie releases -- are oftentimes immature and inferior affairs that act more like a building block than a defining moment in the career of an artist or group.
That's not to say groundbreaking albums right out of the gate don't happen. For example, Alkaline Trio's 1998 debut wasn't a blockbuster but it remains cherished by the threesome's loyal following. In fact, there is so much love for this 33-minute album by fans that the Chicago-based dark punk-pop group is playing the 12-track emo archetype in its entirety on the band's current tour.
"The fact remains that we're all still really excited about that record," said bassist Dan Andriano, calling from Charlotte, N.C. "And a lot of our fans are still very connected to that as well. So it's fun for us to go out and do it. It's been about eight years since that record came out and the band has changed musically and lyrically. But it's all been natural."
Evolution
While the band has evolved from its debut to its most recent album, 2005's "Crimson," what remains is a solid punk aesthetic core sound of poppy angst and bitter turmoil providing a perfect soundtrack to the underbelly of life where roses die from a lack of love and the sun doesn't always shine.
Even though Alkaline Trio, which opened for My Chemical Romance last year and is a veteran of numerous Vans Warped tours, has been lumped into the emo world, Andriano isn't buying into the Madison Avenue marketing of the genre.
"We just want to write songs," Andriano said. "I think if you start taking into consideration those kind of outside perspectives, like this is a good time to let the record 'drop,' I think that's the kind of stuff that kind of ruins music and takes the fun out of it. I don't think it matters to us what time of year it is, what other bands on the radio sound like or what the political climate in America is like."
For the fans
As perhaps rough around the edges as Andriano may sound, he does have a soft side when it comes to Alkaline Trio fans. Having already given "Crimson" a proper tour through the States, the band wanted to book another leg but was afraid of rehashing the same show.
So instead, it came up with a fan-friendly set list that finds the band opening with early stuff, performing an acoustic set and ending with obscure tracks requested through the group's Web site. "Basically, we're letting our fan club pick a third of our set," Andriano said.
One of the gems that fans attending Alkaline Trio's upcoming April 21 show at the Agora can expect to hear is long-lost label compilation song "Old School Reasons."
"The show is kind of like a celebration," Andriano said. "We're all just very much in love with what we do. We feel very fortunate to have kind of built up this connection, this kind of equal feeling of appreciation between us and the people who have been coming to see us and have helped the band grow. It's about them as much as it's about us."