Alkaline Trio – Halloween At The Metro (The Show Must Go Off) [DVD]

Alkaline Trio have become more popular with each release they have put upon the world, their latest release, “Good Mourning”, is no different. To commemorate this accomplishment and to give the band the respect they deserve, Kung Fu Records took the opportunity to display the band in their true form: live. The fourth release in “The Show Must Go Off!” series has Alkaline Trio playing live on Halloween 2002 at the Metro in Chicago.

During their set of 18 songs, they play all their classics songs like “Hell Yes”, “Maybe I’ll Catch Fire”, “Armageddon”, “Queen Of Pain”, “Trouble Breathing”, “Private Eye”, “Radio” and many more. Surprisingly though, “Stupid Kid” was not played at this show. Going along with the Halloween theme, the band appeared on stage, with a giant upside down cross in the background, dressed up in priest outfits topped off with fake blood dripping from their mouths. The audio quality on the DVD is amazing while they are playing their songs, unfortunately,  it does get a little weak when they are talking to the crowd. Other then that, every vocal, every beat, every rhythm comes through your speakers wonderfully. Unfortunately, Matt Skiba’s vocals are much harsher then they are on the album. That takes some of the magic and some of the melody away from the performance, but other then that they put on an extremely good live show. Some emotion and power seems to be lacking in the performance as it doesn’t give you a sense of power and excitement. This seems to be common in bands compiled of three members

As for the color, it could’ve been a lot sharper. It was pretty dark at times which made it quite difficult to view the performance. The 5 cameras used all give different angles and different perceptions of the stage. Adding onto the live performance, Kung Fu have also supplied you with many bonus features. Band commentary, multi-angle options, trailers and a total of 34 black and white photos from the event are just some of the things combine into the bonus features section.