Alexisonfire @ UNSWRoundhouse, Sydney (8/10/10)

Mon 11th Oct, 2010 in Gig Reviews

With the arrival of the new century, came a wave of post-hardcore acts that burst onto the punk and metal scenes across the world. Most of these acts were poor excuses for bands, with mediocre performances and even worse off stage behaviour. However despite the multitude of horrendous acts that came about in this period, there came a number of truly superb artists that exuded talent, stage presence and dedication.

With four critically acclaimed albums, as well as a number of world tours, including performances at Australia’s alt metal festival Soundwave in 2008 and 2010, Alexisonfire have cemented their reputation as one of the world’s greatest post-hardcore acts, which judging from their superb performance at the roundhouse, is hardly surprising.

It was clear from the beginning of the night just how hardcore Alexisonfire’s fanbase was. Before the doors had even opened, it looked as if a good 1000 youths were lined up in eager anticipation of catching a performance from the Canadian act. However the long wait to get into the Roundhouse was somewhat in vein, considering that being early meant enduring the support act for the night – Break Even.

Every aspect of Break Even’s performance would suggest that they belong performing at a local youth centre rather than opening for a major act. Their conduct on stage was one of the biggest issues, with guitarists Steffen Sciuto and Perri Basile choosing to either stare at their feet, or at the drummer for their whole time on stage. In fact towards the end of the bands set, all the members turned their back on the crowd mid song and played to the drummer for the entire duration of a song, which hardly pleased the unimpressed crowd who were merely standing around, counting down the seconds until Alexisonfire took the stage.

However what was most irritating about Break Even’s performance was the deafening wall of poorly eq’ed noise. It was as if the band took the Spinal Tap approach of turning everything up to 11 and letting rip, which ultimately just led to a truly horrendous unbalanced sound, with the guitars dominating the drums and extremely weak and undefined vocals.

After a long forty five minutes of pain, the band left the stage and then the great open space in the mosh began to fill. For fans it was time to get serious. Despite a lengthy setup time for gear, fans were not deterred from screaming, chanting and yelling in excitement, anticipating the arrival of the headliner.

As the band strode out onto stage, the sound of twenty two hundred screaming fans filled the Roundhouse. Guitarist Wade MacNeil took this as a cue and immediately began to strum the introductory chords to Young Cardinals, which acted as a catalyst for the mosh which instantly surged forward and transformed into a frenzy of excited youths, whose screams demanded a performance nothing short of spectacular, and of course, as the humble Canadians they are, Alexis obliged. Where Break Even failed to ignite the mosh, Alexis managed to in less than a second.

It was instantly clear that the band was in fine form, particularly the extremely intoxicated vocalist George Petitt and guitarist/vocalist Dallas Green, who both executed their recorded vocal lines to a tee. Dallas’ clean passages came through with astounding clarity, and demonstrated just how gifted of a singer he really is.

As their set continued, Alexis ploughed through a wide range of their catalogue, with a set list comprising tracks off of every one of their albums including fan favourites Drunks, Lovers, Sinners and Saints and This Could Be Anywhere In The World, recent singles The Northern and Young Cardinals and classics such as Accidents and Pulmonary Archery. Dog’s Blood ,the title track of the upcoming Alexisonfire EP to be released on the 31st of October was also previewed to fans, who seemed to be loving every second of the new material.

This diversity with the set list really shines through as one of the most unique aspects of Alexisonfire’s live show, in that they have no particular set formula for each gig and manage to keep the fans guessing.

The highlight of the night surely came in the four song encore, which stands out as the greatest testament to this diversity with Dallas claiming “I’d be very disappointed if any of you didn’t know the words to this song”, before launching into a cover of Midnight Oil’s The Dead Heart. It was certainly an awesome gesture from the band, but one that was largely lost on the young audience who cheered along anyway, despite having no idea what was happening.

Yet it appeared that some of the patrons were at the Roundhouse to cause trouble, rather than to enjoy the live music. During the final song before the encore – This Could Be Anywhere in The World, one of the numerous crowd surfers managed to make it onto stage and tackle Dallas Green, before security pounced on him and carried the youth off of the stage with great resistance.

It came as a shock to both fans and the band after Dallas staggered offstage, with the fate of the gig unknown. A sheepish looking George Petit wandered offstage to check on Dallas, before both men returned to the stage to a hero’s welcome.

This came after George had already praised the security for their hard work and asked the crowd to try and reduce the violence towards each other because he was concerned for punters safety, which is hardly surprising considering the 19 fans injured at Alexisonfire’s free gig last February in Vancouver.

As the gig began to wind up, Dallas announced the bands final song to be Happiness by the Kilowatt, which provided an oddly calm wind up to the rather aggressive performance of the night, which had just been fueled by the track accidents which took up the spot of second last song for the night.

The band’s cohesiveness throughout the night is perhaps one of the greatest contributors to the quality of the performance. Despite some rather complex arrangements, such as the intro to Pulmonary Archery, when Alexis performed it felt as if the whole band was performing as one, rather than each individual performer doing their own thing.

After a full ninety minutes of exquisite post-hardcore, punters were left amazed at how talented the Canadian quintet truly are. It was obvious from the deafening roar of screams, shouts and applause from the audience as the band left the stage that Alexis had left their mark on the UNSW roundhouse.

Check out the photos from the gig