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    Photos: Alkaline Trio & Bad Religion at Express Live!

    2021 has already had a handful of top-notch co-headlining tours, and on Wednesday evening, another big one came to town with a double dose of American punk-rock pioneers in the shape of Bad Religion and Alkaline Trio.

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    While COVID and construction kept many shows outside, we were back inside on the Express Live! stage as Baltimore’s War on Women opened the evening with a blistering set of noise and multi-colored hair.

    Emo-punks Alkaline Trio were up next. Formed in the late ’90s by Matt Skiba, and now completed by Dan Andriano and Derek Grant, the three-piece blasted the venue with their sing-along melding of up-tempo rock and dark lyrics.

    Bad Religion topped the bill, as the old timers, Gen-X parents and hipster kids gathered en mass to catch a show from a band that’s probably older than you are.

    Formed in 1980 by a few high school friends in Los Angeles, Bad Religion have gone on to be one of the most influential punk bands on the planet with album after album packed with melodic punk and lyrics of anti-establishment and free-thinking that have given the band a massive fan following.

    For everything great about Bad Religion, they’re not the greatest visual spectacle, but they’ve never tried to be and for most people that’s fine as you get what you expect, with near perfect replications of the studio versions of classic cuts like “Los Angeles is Burning” and “Infected” that had all the different age ranges in the crowd in full voice.

    Matt Ellis is a freelance photographer who covers bands that visit the city and the Columbus Crew MLS team. More about Matt can be found on his Instagram.

    All photos by Matt Ellis

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    Matt Ellis
    Matt Ellishttps://www.instagram.com/3songsandgone/
    Matt Ellis is a freelance photographer who covers music that happens in the city and the Columbus Crew SC home games. More photography from Matt can be found at his Instagram page.
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