A third of punk royalty

“Any place that feels a little more intimate, more one-of-a-kind, that makes it special,” Andriano said. “I love playing all kinds of venues, but the bigger the room, the more detached you can feel from the crowd. When you’re standing on the same level as the audience, there’s more of a feeling that you’re in it together.”

Andriano brings his solo project, Dan Andriano in the Emergency Room, to Mac’s Bar Saturday. The bill also features Dan Potthast of punk/ska outfit MU330 and local rockers Jason Alarm. Alkaline trio’s drummer, Derek Grant, will perform a solo set and back up Andriano.

“Derek is going to be playing songs from his record, and then he’s going to be playing drums with me, which is super awesome,” Andriano said. “Having a drummer, you feel comfortable, which is a lifesaver in these live situations.”

Andriano

Courtesy Photo

As for the bulky name for Andriano’s solo project, he cautions against reading too much into it.

“I wanted to come up with something that wasn’t just my name on the front of a record,” he explained. “There’s no story involved or anything like that, but I suppose it’s a metaphor. Sometimes people feel like they need some help — emergency help.”

Andriano started his solo project as a way to work on songs that he couldn’t find a place for. He released his first solo album, “Hurricane Season,” in 2011.

“I’d been kicking around these songs for a little bit, and I didn’t know what to do with them, because they wouldn’t really work on an Alkaline Trio record,” he explained. “The more I wrote, the easier it became to differentiate between the two — a song going to Alkaline Trio or a song going to Emergency Room.”

Andriano released his latest solo album, “Party Adjacent,” last year. While the album sounds like an Alkaline Trio project at times, it also pulls from influences like the Cure, Elvis Costello and Paul Westerberg. Andriano doesn’t set out to write songs for a specific project, preferring to start writing and let the creative process play out on its own.

“I don’t really do it with any sort of intention, but I know pretty quick,” he said. “Before the song is done, as I’m working on it, I can feel which direction I want to go.”

Andriano, 39, joined Alkaline Trio in 1997, when he was in his early 20s. The band released its breakout album “From Here to Infirmary,” in 2001. The band’s next five albums all broke the top 25 on the Billboard 200 chart, and two albums — 2003’s “Good Mourning” and 2010’s “This Addition” — reached No. 1 on Billboard’s independent albums chart. Along the way, the group picked up a dedicated following.

“I definitely notice that the crowd has aged with us, but the crowds also keep getting bigger, so there’s new people coming on board. That’s really exciting,” Andriano said. “The shows aren’t as wild as they used to be, but that’s because a lot of the fans have grown up with us. I don’t get that crazy when I go to shows anymore. I just pick a good spot and watch and listen.”

Alkaline Trio’s latest album, “My Shame is True,” was released in 2013. Last year, the group’s singer/guitarist, Matt Skiba, joined pop-punk outfit Blink-182, replacing that band’s founding singer/guitarist, Tom De- Longe. But Andriano expects that Alkaline Trio will be back together soon.

“We’re just hanging out, waiting for Matt to wrap up the stuff he is doing with Blink, which is super cool,” he said. “Once that’s done, we’ll get back in the studio, make a record, go on tour — you know, do what we do.”

Dan Andriano in the Emergency Room

With Dan Potthast, Derek Grant and Jason Alarm 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22 $12 Mac’s Bar 2700 E. Michigan Ave., Lansing (517) 484-6795, macsbar.com