Photos and Review by Jeff Lasich
On Tuesday November 9, the Bad Religion/Alkaline Trio tour landed in Pittsburgh, PA at Stage AE. This is another tour that had to be rescheduled due to the world shutting down for over a year. But distance makes the heart grow fonder. An almost sold out venue eagerly welcomed the bands back to town. Opening the show was Baltimore’s War on Women. With their most recent record on Bridge 9 Records, the five piece from Charm City started the night off with hard hitting riot grrrl rage fueled by issues such as gender equality, sexual harassment and other social injustices. It’s kind of absurd that these things are still an issue in 2021, but it’s great to see a band taking this head on and standing strong on their beliefs and changing minds in the process.
Next up was Alkaline Trio. There were certainly people at the show just to see AK3 and at times you could barely hear the band over the crowd singing along. Matt Skiba seemed to be in a good mood, as he , Derek Grant and Dan Andriano ripped through an 18 song set. The band opened with Cringe while mixing in some old songs along with newer stuff, before closing with a crowd pleasing Radio.
Ending the night was LA’s punk legends, Bad Religion. I first saw them on the Generator tour in the summer of 1992 and have seen them many times since. Bad Religion never disappoints. They put together a setlist spanning the 40 years they have been a band. It was actually a good mix of older and newer songs. I was especially happy to hear some songs off Against the Grain and of course Generator. The band held the crowd from the first note to the last. Half the floor was a giant circle pit. There have been some lineup changes over the years but the band never skipped a beat. Greg, Jay, Brian, Mike and Jamie played a flawless set of 22 songs, with the encore being We’re Only Gonna Die from their debut lp. There is still a couple weeks left for this tour, so if it’s coming near you, try to get to it. You won’t be disappointed.
Leave a Reply