Alkaline Trio meant a lot to me a decade or so ago. I was spending time in Chicago interpersonally and managed to get friendly-ish with the crew in the Derek years and The Figgs toured with them in the Felumlee era, but the last couple three records have not done so much for me. There's been a weird Dave Vanian meets Christian Death thing going on with Skiba that is bordering on caricature from where I'm sitting, and that combined with the relentless rehashing of Goddamnit has really taken me out of the game about keeping up in any way other than a cursory fashion. It's a shame, having once flown from Panama explicitly to see the gents at Wetlands in the good old days.My old man bitching aside, it took a bit for me to get around to checking out The Emergency Room stuff. My loss, as Hurricane Season is actually really good. Evidently Danny recorded this himself, calling in the auxiliary for some keys and odds and ends, but evidently calling all the shots. It was a freedom that evidently drove our hero (and, by extrapolation, his wife) a little crazytown. It hasn't resulted in any Syd Barrett-esque or Daniel Johnston psychedelia, but it has got us a record that sounds like a more adult-contemporary version of Andriano, mostly acoustically driven with more Hammond padding than previous. It's nice to hear Danny play guitar again and the songs are all really solid. I'd say On Monday is my favorite, but there really isn't a dud on Hurricane Season, which is a lot more than I can say for the last couple Trio records. It's pretty dark, or perhaps more aptly melancholic, but not unpleasantly (read- whiny) so. Older fans who shudder at the thought of a re-recorded Goddamnit, but still hold the old days in fond regard would do well to check out Hurricane Season.
R
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