By Jacob NelsonThe Daily Northwestern

After writing songs in a variety of different bands over the past 13 years, one thing about Falcon guitarist/singer Brendan Kelly is very clear: he likes drinking a lot.

Kelly began his musical career in 1993 with Slapstick, a ska-punk band that included, among five other members, Dan Andriano of Alkaline Trio on bass. After the band split up, the two went their separate ways, with Kelly playing in the Broadways while Andriano fronted the Tuesday. Eventually the two became essential parts of more successful bands; Kelly became the bassist and rough-voiced singer of the Lawrence Arms and Andriano joined the Trio.

Now, nearly 15 years later, the two are playing together again. And the songs are still about getting totally wasted.

Because of the popularity of bands like Alkaline Trio and the Lawrence Arms, many consider the Falcon to be one of the most epic side projects ever to enter the punk community (the band seems vaguely aware of this as well, naming its Web site “thefalconisbiggerthanjesus.com”). It’s this enthusiasm that raged through the Metro last Thursday night.

In short, there were leather jackets and moshing galore.

Playing to a packed house of people ranging from old-school punks who were too drunk to differentiate between those who wanted to be punched in the head and those who didn’t, to ’90s indie kids who stood behind the pit with their arms crossed, I imagined it’d be an obstacle for the Falcon to win over every kind of person in the room. What I didn’t realize, however, was just how universal the Falcon’s sound could be. In fusing two great bands, Kelly and Andriano, along with guitarist/backup singer and drummer Ron Kellenberger, have done the impossible: