steppin' out with frantic666: ALKALINE TRIO - UK: Hatfield, Leeds, London

Alkaline Trio are very popular in the UK, more than on mainland in Europe. It's always fun to see them at a smaller stage around here, but the UK shows are not to be missed. I picked out 3 great ones: London is always a must, escpecially when the venue is in Camden. I found out the 2 shows before London were festival headline shows at the Slam Dunk South (Hatfield) en North (Leeds)festivals.

I took the early Eurostar train from Brussels to London on Saturday May 29, the day of the first show. First (unwanted) excitement came upon arrival at London St. Pancrass station. With NO Pounds and only 15 Euro in my wallet, I had planned on using my Visa card in an ATM at the station. The customer before me takes the money and moves on. My turn. By coincidence, the moment that I uut my card in and the machine takes it, the ATM status goes to "out of service"! There's no way to get my card out again and immediately I wonderred if this trip was already over before it even started. Luckily, I used one of the ATM's that is not owned by a bank (it was bank holiday weekend too!), but by the currency exchange office at the station. I explained and the guy just broke the machine open from the inside and got my card out. I could've hugged him but I decided to run for my train connection to Hatfield. Got there on time and arrived in Hatfield before noon. Hatfield seems depressig, might've been the rain but it's definitely not the place where I'd want to live. Checked out the venue, the University of Hertfortshire, and it still looked desolate. Took some time to eat: the only vegetariandish I found was jacket potatoes with beans and vegetables. Hatfield is a vegetarian's nightmare. After a short powernap at the Ramada Hotel, I went to the University.

Slam Dunk festival is a fantastic idea: 8 stages all in one huge campus building. Lots of bands, lots of choice. All university stores were open too: supermarket, bars and cafeteria's.
Slamdunk Hatfield only had one problem: I think they thought they could sell extra tickets because one main stage was outside. Some heavy rain caused a lot of people looking for a dry stage inside and things blocked in the building. No one could move in the corridors. The place was shut down for an hour: nobody in, nobody out. It gave security the time to get their shit together. Nobody picked a fight though, great crowd I say! After the lockdown after 6-7pm, it was decided that if you were inside and wanted to go out for the outdoors stage, that would be a definite decision. out = out. A lot of fans who wanted to see New Found Glory at the Glamour Kills stage inside, never got in though. The thing made the news. I was lucky to get outside and get to the outdoors Atticus Stage where Against Me! and Alkaline Trio where the last 2 bands.
Against Me! played a very enjoyable set and I couldn't be more happy that band was playing right before Alkaline. Alkaline Trio played a powerful set and everybody seemed to enjoy it a lot.

Slamdunk Hatfield setlist (not in order), I hightlighted the highlights: Private Eye/Armageddon/Emma/Dine Dine, My Darling/This Could Be Love/We've Had Enough/Crawl/Off The Map/This Addiction/Sadie/Snake Oil Tanker/Warbrain/Clavicle/Stupid Kid/'97/Radio
Other great bands I enjoyed: Hit The Lights, Rolo Tomassi and Chas Palmer-Williams.

The next day was another early get up: I had to move north to Leeds to be on time for the North edition of the Slamdunk Festival. Leeds is a nice city to visit, the Merrion Hotel was not as good as the Hatfield. That TV seemed old and half broke and internet... anybody heard of that? Anyway, punkrock is what I came here for.
SlamDunk Leeds at Leeds University was sold out but it wasn't crowded as in Hatfield. It was just perfect, and that with all 8 stages indoors. Only downside again was the amateuristic entrance for the internet tickets: a list with the names on for ID check and wristbands; and 1 ONE person handling this resulted in a 50 minute queue to get in. FUCK THIS.
Inside, only good things. Saw some excellent bands, with Blackhole, We Are The Ocean and Against Me! being my favorites before the main dish Alkaline Trio came on.
This Being indoors in the club room of the University, the sound was a lot better. I decided to find a good spot at the bar on the balcony so I could see things from a different perspective this time. It doesn't have to be front row everytime to see a good gig. Sadie sounded wonderful here.

Setlist Slamdunk Leeds (not in order), my favs being highlighted again: Private Eye/Armageddon/Emma/Dine Dine, My Darling/This Could Be Love/We've Had Enough/Warbrain/Crawl/Off The Map/My Friend Peter/This Addiction/Sadie/Blue Carolina/Stupid Kid/'97/Radio

Day off on May 31 and decided to stay in Leeds the whole day to check out the city Museum and to do a long walk. I always try to do a long walk when I'm travelling. It burns the calories of all the food you ate and it's a perfect way to see the whole neighbourhood. It resulted in a 2 hour waterfront walk plus an extra museum visit at the Royal Armouries. It's a nice building, if you're not afraid of heights ;-).
I spent the evening on the train from Leeds all the way back to London. Arrived in Camden at 11pm to check in at my regular place. A The St. Christopher's Inn Hostel, just near the venues Koko and Roundhouse ànd near The Camden Lock Market. I shared a 6-bed room with 2 travellers from Texas, one from Australia and one from South-Africa. The guy from South Africa has been travelling non-stop for 4,5 years, just living out of a backpack. Impressive. Needless to say the subject of conversation was our experiences with the places everybody visited. That was a fun night.

Tuesday, June 1: biiiigg day: Alkaline Trio at the legendary Roundhouse. Just do a wiki on that venue and you know what I mean!!!! This venue is absolutely superb. Sound is not perfect but who cares if you're seeing a concert in HERE! The ceiling and the lighting on it is very Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.
More surprises: I check the time scedule and see what was meant by "Alkaline Trio + guests".
Guests are Attack! Attack!, Set Your Goals and... GALLOWS from London. Rather a surprise gig with them being added less than 24 hours before the show! I din't like Attack! at all, Set Your Goals were good and powerful, people enjoyed it but I saw them in december of last year, and that was too soon again for me. Gallows were the most powerful band. The gig didn't last for 20 minutes but you felt like you had everything. Frank Carter sang half of his concert offstage IN the moshpit.
When Alkaline Trio came onstage, it was like a homecoming of heroes. Amazing. The concert turned into something more. This was simply the best ALK3 concert I've seen, and the best concert I've seen this year. Matt Skiba: "London, this was one of the most fun times I had onstage. EVER!". 2 Extra encores with the band swapping instruments for a faster version of Fine and for the Misfits cover Angelfuck where drummer Derek showed he's fantastic singer too.

Setlist Roundhouse London (favs highlighted): Private Eye/Armageddon/Emma/Dine Dine My Darling/This Could Be Love/We've Had Enough/Mr.Chainsaw/Another Innocent Girl/Warbrain/Crawl/Off The Map/This Addiction/Snake Oil Tanker/Sadie/Blue Caroline/Clavicle/Stupid Kid/'97/Fine/Angelfuck/Radio

London always delivers: the concert was great, Camden is a great place. I love the Calden Lock Market, you can just hang there for hours and hours. I ran into Dan there and I asked for a picture. As I got it, I wanted to thank him and move on; I didn't want take up his time for some fantalk. But Dan was cool, started the conversation himself, asked my name, asked where I was from and appologized because they were not playing Brussels this time when I said I wasn't that far from Brussels. I told him I would definitely be in Antwerp. We also talked about the German festivals Rock Am Ring and In Park they were doing after their final headline show in Belgium. Dan didn't know what it was and only heard it was supposed to be big. I confirmed and he looked a bit surprised when I said that Rock Am Ring was on formula 1 circuit. Cool dude.
Another surprise came when I walked to the venue: suddenly I realised that person walking right before me wore a Motörhead jacket and had a trolley with him. I bet that was Derek. As we both had to stop at a red traffic light, I saw I was right. His wife took the picture.

I got home the next day passed 10pm and had to work on Thursday (ouch!). This UK mini-tour was absolutely fantastic with 2 rainy days being the only bad thing. I'm already looking forward to my return to London this month for The Gaslight Anthem at the Brixton Academy. The concert might be in Brixton, but I'll be sleeping in Camden.

This trip, out of 10 : 11

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Hatfield