Alexisonfire

By Ellie Gaudiosi

As a long introduction played, the large crowd at Leeds Metropolitan University on November 6th 2010 suddenly came to life and a buzz of anticipation filled the room. Alexisonfire entered the stage to rapturous cheers and launch straight into ‘Young Cardinals’ and with that, the crowd already become frenzied. For the first half of their eighteen song set, a set brimming with the very best Alexisonfire have to offer, they storm through the songs with no break in between which keeps the set flowing and gives the crowd no opportunity to slow down their pace.

Alexisonfire gave a flawless performance; Dallas Green’s vocals were note perfect and blended wholly with George Pettit’s much more aggressive vocals. Chris Steele, the bassist, is a bizarre character. Band members refer to him as ‘Canada’s finest moustache’, ‘like Jesus wrapped in Ghandi, wrapped in a thousand dollar bill’ and ‘the best member of Alexisonfire’. He rarely speaks but is highly entertaining, as he dives all around the stage and pulls faces to the crowd. Every band member puts an incredible amount of energy into the entire performance, which is infectious and encourages the crowd to constantly move from start to finish.

The set is a perfect mix of old and new songs, but it is the old songs that seem to be the crowd favourites. In particular; ‘This Could Be Anywhere In The World’ from the 2006 album ‘Crisis’ and ’44 Caliber Love Letter’ and ‘Pulmonary Archery’ from their self-titled debut, which George described as ‘a piece of history’. Despite their age, the old songs still seem fresh and the band play them with as much enthusiasm as they would if they were playing them for the first time.

The band departed the stage after an hour of sweaty circle pits, roaring crowd sing-alongs, tumbling crowd surfers and quite possibly some minor injuries. Instantly there were booming chants of ‘We want more!’ but, as they did at the beginning of the night, the band kept the crowd waiting and let the anticipation rise. When they returned to the stage, the band played an unusually long five song encore, featuring old crowd favourites off their first two albums. They rounded off the incredible night with ‘Happiness By The Kilowatt’, but it seemed the crowd were still eager for more despite the lengthy set.

Alexisonfire couldn’t have given a better performance: they played tight as a band, put on a fantastic show, kept the crowd energised and made it seem so effortless. From the crowd’s reaction it is obvious the gig will be a very unforgettable night for them and that if Alexisonfire were to tour the UK again, it would be yet another huge success.