Alkaline Trio a little too polished for punk

The Alkaline Trio has perfected its craft, as it showed in storming through a high-energy (though thematically maudlin) set of punk, emo and polished pop Wednesday at the Wiltern LG.

The Chicago-area band’s stylistic melange -- equal parts Blink-182, My Chemical Romance and Pennywise -- has picked up commercial momentum, reflected in its headlining two straight nights at the 2,000-capacity theater.

But when even the machine rages against the machine and an idea has been chopped, processed and packaged for easy consumption, there is a palpable sense that it’s all just a farce of decorative tattoos and hollow cries of sorrow and rage, meant for nothing but the disposable pageantry of a 90-minute show.

The music was delivered with such perfection, such a seamless weaving of pop sensibility with punk aesthetic as to make one wonder: When did punk rock get so perfectable? And is that a good idea or a contradiction in terms?

At one point, singer-guitarist Matt Skiba looked out over a sea of black baseball caps and sang, “Please turn that ... radio off.... We’ve had enough.... Put ‘Walk Among Us’ on and turn it up.” The lyric name-checks a song by the Misfits, a seminal punk band that probably would have found the scene at the Wiltern about as punk as a ride at Disneyland.