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Alkaline Trio hit a one-off before their stint at 2005's Carling Weekender

Just ten days before their appearance at the Carling weekender, Alkaline Trio played a one off 'warm-up' show at the Astoria to all those who purely want to see the band at a more intimate level compared to the main stage at Reading or Leeds. £18 seemed a little extravagant for a gig at the Astoria, especially since the band are returning in November and only had one other band on the bill that was the ever so average My Awesome Compilation.

After waiting a rather strangling 2 hours 15 minutes, Alkaline Trio finally got on stage and banged out latest single 'Time To Waste'. To my own amazement, people started jumping up and down like they were at a pop concert. Maybe I'm just too cool (yeah right!) to do that sort of thing, but I've never seen it before at a concert and maybe this 'pop' movement in the crowd signifies Alkaline Trio's popularity in today's industry and represents their success over recent years.

Following on from their opening song, the band continued with 'We've Had Enough' which set the crowd roaring for more, bassist Aldriano then carried on to play the album titled song 'Maybe I'll Catch Fire' that certainly implied the band weren't aiming to appease the crowd with their newest songs.

By Alkaline Trio's tenth song into their set the crowd had settled down and were totally worn out. Each one was soaked in not only their own sweat but also other fluids off other people! Fans were still screaming along even to the very old 'My Little Needle' which was a rarity to hear from the band live. A bit of a shame Dan Aldriano didn't put so much effort into the backing vocals but the song was still enjoyable to say the least.

In comparison to other times I've seen them. I would have to admit that their performance at the Astoria this year has certainly been their best and with their evenly mixed set of both old and new songs, Alkaline Trio pleased all fans, old and new.