Matt Skiba And The Sekrets / The Smoking Popes

Doors 8pm | Show 9pm A trooper, a vagabond, a minstrel and an artist - over the course of fifteen years and eight full-length albums as the lead singer/songwriter for Chicago's Alkaline Trio, Matt Skiba has been all of these things. Touring the world, heart on sleeve, Skiba has consistently penned some of the greatest dark pop anthems of the past decade. For both major labels and indies, whether it be acoustic ballads or antagonistic anthems, Skiba is an icon of the outsider and he has remained a… Show more singular voice of a sub-genre he helped to create. Now, after so many years as part of the band that has come to define him, Skiba has stepped out from the Trio to create Babylon, the debut album from Matt Skiba and the Sekrets. Teaming up with AFI's Hunter Burgan on bass and My Chemical Romance's Jarrod Alexander on drums, Babylon remains the creation of Skiba himself. "It's a band, but it's not a band. It was great to have Hunter and Jarrod come in and play. They are both great musicians and it was a thrill to play with them. Everyone involved in the album breathed life into the ideas, making them songs and giving those songs a foundation that couldn't be stronger or more inspired." His singular vision shows the true breadth of his songwriting skills, from the uptempo chant of the album opener and lead single "Voices" to the heartfelt, acoustic strains of its closer, "Angel of Deaf" Not merely a studio experiment, Matt Skiba and the Sekrets will be touring extensively behind Babylon. The shows are sure to be equal parts intimate and explosive, with Skiba performing the entire album along with a few unexpected surprises. "I can't wait to play these songs live. It's always exciting to try new stuff out, and to do it with an all new band - who knows who'll be coming along for the ride when we do this live - is going to be great." Matt Skiba on Facebook
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