Before I start, I just want to say "RIP Adam," who, largely due to heart complications, passed away at and in the direct middle of the show. So...RIP Adam.

No Motiv took the stage, and thus rocked out for all three of their fans at the Palladium. Okay, I'm kidding, it was five. Jeremy's soaring vocals sounded nothing less than strong, and worked great over the tight musicianship they were displaying that night. They started with a trio of songs off Daylight Breaking, due 2018. Both on the Lola teaser EP (and in the same order), "Grey Notes Fall" started things off and "Independence Day" immediately followed. The backpack-clad moshers had no idea how to indulge their unneccessarily violent fervor during the set, but the uptempo melancholy of what the setlist deemed "Darkness" may have helped a bit. They also played "Death in Numbers" off DB, and only dipped into half their back catalogue (hell freezes over the day we hear something off Cynical or Scarred) for "Broken and Burned" and "So What," the latter in which they awkwardly restrained the tempo on the chorus even more than the studio version. Nonetheless, a solid set.

Being the Vagrant Tour, maybe this is why From Autumn to Ashes only bothered to acknowledge Too Bad You're Beautiful with one song? Well, additional back catalogue bitching aside, the set flowed well, with FATA playing a short intro before diving into "The After-Dinner Paycheck" and "Milligram Smile." The crowd had definitely woken up. Francis kept his drumming and singing duties at a nice parallel, but you could tell that Ben - whose job has slowly started to become akin to that of A Static Lullaby's screamer - was losing his voice at some points, seemingly not enough to detract from their set though. Growling on a nightly basis plus smoking = time for a nicotine patch. The one aforementioned song they played off TBYB was next ("Eulogy for an Angel"). After "Every Reason To," Fran came out from behind his skins to take the front part of the stage for his vocals in "I'm the Best At Ruining My Life" and Reggie and the Full Effect's drummer came out to fill in for him on the drums without any trouble. The closer wrapped things up well for the harder portion of the night.

The extremely long interval between them and Reggie's set was helped by some good singalong TV show themes played on the overhead, including "Sesame Street," "Scooby-Doo," "Inspector Gadget," "Cheers," "The A-Team," and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Yes, it was necessary to link all of those.

Finally, the bunch walked out on the stage to some shredding metal playing on the speakers, until, with his eyes bulging, Reggie placed his hands on the keyboard, looked into the mic, and screamed..."LET'S GET IT OOOOOOON!!!" The instruments clashed and mashed for a ripping "Apocalypse WOW!" before playing into "Girl, Why'd You Run Away?" Reggie then announced the upcoming EP, slotted for a January or February release date, called Fellowship of the Bling, and proceeded to play the title track off said EP. If it was any indication of the whole disc, it definitely carries early consideration for EP of 2004. It takes a lot of the rocking chaos of "Apocalypse," but then threw in a bit of the Dance Dance Revolution-styled techno from "Mood 4 Luv" for one hairy-knuckled pack of a punch. After a romping "Thanx 4 Stayin'" and a bitchin' cover of Slayer's "Reign in/Raining Blood," "Happy Valentine's Day" smoothed things out beautifully. Promotional Copy's "Something I'm Not" and "Gloves" closed out the set, with Reggie decked in some orange camo for one or the other and a twirler 'girl' jumping around. Though it seemed Hungary Bear couldn't make it out tonight, the devils themselves, Finland's Common Denominator, came out spitting blood to play a song for the Americans. Crazy Fins. (Don't let it go over your head.)

With funeral organs and thick dry ice smoke both seeping into the air and two coffins sandwiching the drum kit, the Alkaline Trio slowly arose from their "slumber" and began with the first three tracks off Good Mourning, "This Could Be Love" and "We've Had Enough" back-to-back. As much of the crowd did with the band's opener, they pogoed to the next one, "100 Stories." Yes, pogoed, the jumping-up-and-down motion that I never really "got." When AK3 became a pogoing band defeats me (yeah yeah, it was the radio-friendly adaption of GM), but the show's attendants got it all out right in the beginning at least. I can also confirm the off-stage second guitarist, hence the previous joking link, whom played to the rear left but was at least acknowledged by Matt (who looked like Mr. Rogers working a funeral home) later on (he said his name but I forgot, my bad), telling the crowd how the second guitarist makes up for his suckiness. After the trio of new songs, it seemed as though much of the set was put in little groups, all little album excerpts for us, because we were then treated to three off Maybe I'll Catch Fire, "Keep 'em Coming," the title track, and "5-3-10-4." It was then From Here to Infirmary's turn in line; "Armageddon," "Trucks and Trains," and "Crawl." Despite the obvious need for Goddamnit or the singles collection to have a trilogy of excerpts played, a fair compromise was instated when the haunting strings opened "Radio." Luckily, this and the rest of the set failed to follow the structure the first nine had seemingly dictated, when, in this order, "Queen of Pain," "This is Getting Over You," "Enjoy Your Day" (the whole band had left the stage without a word, and looking like an encore but not actually being one, Dan walked back on and played it appropriately solo for us in all of its barroom glory until the rest came back), "Continental," and "Message from Kathy." After "All on Black," Matt thanked us for coming out, and walked off with everybody. He second-guessed our "'97" prediction when he came back by himself, and then second-guessed my "Sorry About That" prediction when he chose a strangely somber rendition of a "Blue in the Face" requiem to officially end the night.

Set lists word for word, all of which I'm 99% sure are accurate (special thanks to set list-collector Matt):

No Motiv
LOLA
ID4
DARKNESS
BROKEN
DEATH IN #'S
SO WHAT

From Autumn to Ashes
Intro
After Dinner
Milligram Smile
Eulogy
Alive out of Habit
Every Reason To
I'm the Best

Reggie & the FUCKIN' Full Effect
APACOLYPSE WOW!
GIRL WHY RUN AWAY
FELLOWSHIP BLING
THANX 4 STAYIN
SLAYER
HAPPY VD DAY
SOMETHUN I'M NOT
GLOVES
COMMON DELIGHT

Alkaline Trio
THIS COULD BE LOVE
WE'VE HAD ENOUGH
100 STORIES
KEEP 'EM COMING
MAYBE I'LL CATCH FIRE
5,3-10,4
ARMAGEDDON
TRUCKS & TRAINS
CRAWL
RADIO
QUEEN OF PAIN
THIS IS GETTING OVER YOU
ENJOY YOUR DAY (DAN)
CONTINENTAL
MESSAGE FROM KATHY
ALL ON BLACK
BLUE IN THE FACE