LIVE: Filter @ Jillian’s, 3/6/12 (A Slight Return)

Review and photographs by Brian Tromans

Platinum-selling artist Filter visited Jillian’s in Albany last month to help promote the group’s latest album, “The Trouble with Angels,” as they prepared to record their next album, “Gurney And The Burning Books” schedule for a fall release. Bob Marlette (Black Sabbath, Atreyu, Saliva) will be handling the production chores.

Frontman Richard Patrick wrote much of the material for the new CD with current guitarist Jonny Radtke (Kill Hannah, Ashes Divide, Polar Moon), who joined the group last year. According to recent interviews, inspiration for the new material comes from the group’s platinum hit “Hey Man, Nice Shot” and things going on in Patrick’s life, including a feeling of betrayal from people surrounding him. On the topic of the overall direction of the new CD, Patrick said, “We have this beautiful record that starts off heavy and mean and then it goes back to the more moody, almost joyful parts of life… We just aspire to make the songs as good, and I think the songwriting is superior. We just have to make sure the performances are as desperate and powerful as those crazy takes I did when I was kid.”

Now at nearly 44 years old, Patrick is still channeling those powerful performances, and perhaps he was channeling that inner kid as he jumped off the stage at Jillian’s into the crowd. Patrick mentioned his sobriety – the date of September 28, 2002 tattooed on his forearm as a reminder – but encouraged the crowd to buy shots of Jameson for the group’s bassist, Phil Buckman.

Patrick and Radtke returned to the stage with an encore performance of “Soldiers of Misfortune” from Filter’s 2008 album, “Anthems for the Damned.” The song is a first-person narrative inspired by a letter about Sgt. Justin L. Eyerly, a Filter fan who had enlisted in the Army National Guard to get his college tuition paid. During his final year of college, he was shipped off to Iraq where he died from an IED explosion after only two months of duty. In an interview with radio station Q103 before the show, Patrick spoke about the group’s tours to Kuwait and Iraq to play for the troops and how at one stop the base was attacked.

SECOND OPINIONS:
Andrzej Pilarczyk’s review and photographs at Nippertown