[Review] Alexisonfire @ Hindley St Music Hall, Adelaide 27/02/2023
Making my way to the venue I am thankful mother nature has given us a reprieve from the heat. That being said I have a feeling that Hindley St Music Hall is going to be a sweat-pit tonight. It’s been a few years since Canadian five-piece Alexisonfire have played here and talking to people around the place over the last few weeks it seems that their fans are extremely keen for this gig. Releasing their latest album Otherness in 2022, the band have some new material to show us along with all the crowd favourites.
Hailing from Tasmania, Luca Brasi are up first performing their cool style of indie punk. Playing to a reasonably packed room of hardcore fans may have been a daunting experience for some, but it didn’t seem to deter the boys. Opening with Dying To Be Alive, we got a taste of the bands catalogue through songs like Anything Near Conviction, Aeroplane and Tangled; Content.
A laid-back stage presence, along with their catchy melodies was a pleasant way to start the night. Some one yelled ‘Tassie represent’ which enticed some banter between the crowd and the band. This was a prelude into the boys playing Let It Slip “a song about how fucking sick Tassie is”. Fans grooved along with Party Scene while Tyler Richardson’s vocals smoothly washed over us. One punter was over eager to see the main act yelling “Play some metal” to which the boys obliged with a quick AC/DC riff and a laugh.
I need to be honest here, I know who Alexisonfire are but haven’t really listened to them a great deal, much to the surprise of my gig date. Over the years I have heard the stories of Alexisonfire live shows. Monday night I witnessed it. Honestly, I don’t even know where to start and I don’t think words can even come close to describing it.
The venue is plunged into darkness. You can feel the atmosphere on the ground change. Blue light swathes the stage, some lovely symphonic music plays and five mates wander casually into our view. Grabbing their instruments, they shuffle around and strum a few notes. Screams erupt from the around the venue as George Pettit grabs the microphone. Next minute all hell breaks loose. Drunks, Lovers, Sinners and Saints assails our ears while absolute chaos reigns on the stage. Bassist Chris Steele resembles a man possessed as he twists and grinds his way around the stage, ducking and weaving around the other band members.
For the next hour we are taken on the most amazing journey, not only musically but visually. Alexisonfire are taking no prisoners tonight. Song after song is shot at us like a machine gun with no chance to catch our breath. Scanning the crowd, punters eyes are darting this way and that as they try to focus on each band member, which I have to admit was damn hard! Having three vocalists brings an amazing dynamic to listening to Alexisonfire. The voices of George, and guitarists Dallas Green and Wade MacNeil meld to form some of the most manically sublime sounds, which is just crazy when they barely stand still.
Each song took the crowd closer to the pinnacle of ecstasy, inducing a fevered pit where bodies of all ages appeared above the sea of heads. Boiled Frogs, Sweet Dreams of Otherness, Blue Spade and 44. Caliber Love Letter all led us to the first notes of Crisis when the crowd completely lost their minds, yep the pinnacle had been reached. Bodies that had floated became more frenetic in the air as the barrier came alive. This is what live music is all about, exchanging energies and feeding off each other. The Northern’s slower tempo gives momentarily relief, the crowd gather their thoughts and breath briefly. The familiar drum beat starts, and Young Cardinals spirals us back into the vortex. Honestly this is one of the highest energy gigs I have witnessed, this is five mates having the absolute time of their lives and we are privileged to witness it. Summing up our night, Happiness by the Kilowatt is an apt song to take us home. Walking out onto Hindley Street, apart from the odd car horn, the only sound you can hear in the street is the crowd singing the chorus of Neil Young’s Hey, Hey, My, My along with the band. My biggest tip from the night is that an Alexisonfire gig is something that everyone needs to experience once in their lifetime regardless of their taste in music.
ALEXISONFIRE Add Second Melbourne Show To Australian 2023 Tour
Canadian hardcore luminaries Alexisonfire have added a second Melbourne show on Saturday 25 February to their anticipated 2023 Australian visit.
Responding to demand during the pre-sale period, the five-piece will now deliver five headline shows down under, kicking off at Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall on Friday 17 February, followed by a stop at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre on Monday 20 February, back-to-back nights at Melbourne’s Forum on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 February, winding up in Adelaide on Monday 27 February.
All shows will go on sale to the general public tomorrow at 10am local time.
Admired by Australian audiences, on their eighth visit down under Alexisonfire will perform songs from their celebrated catalogue, along with tunes from their new record Otherness – their first full-length album in thirteen years, never before heard live by local audiences.
The group that Rolling Stone declared “put Canadian post-hardcore on the map”, Alexisonfire have blown audiences away at major international festival appearances over Northern Hemisphere summer, including Lollapalooza across South America, Canada’s Born & Raised Festival and a “flawless” Rage Against The Machine North American support.
Alexisonfire will be joined on all dates by local rockers Luca Brasi, one of the country’s most roadworthy outfits.
ALEXISONFIRE
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS LUCA BRASI
AUSTRALIAN TOUR
FEBRUARY 2023
Presented by Chugg Entertainment and Frontier Touring
GENERAL PUBLIC ON SALE
Begins: Thursday 17 November (10am local time)
frontiertouring.com/alexisonfire
FRIDAY 17 FEBRUARY
The Fortitude Music Hall | Brisbane, QLD
ticketmaster.com.au
MONDAY 20 FEBRUARY
Enmore Theatre | Sydney, NSW
ticketek.com.au
FRIDAY 24 FEBRUARY
Forum Melbourne | Melbourne, VIC
ticketek.com.au
SATURDAY 25 FEBRUARY
Forum Melbourne | Melbourne, VIC – NEW SHOW, JUST ADDED!
ticketek.com.au
MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY
Hindley Street Music Hall | Adelaide, SA
moshtix.com.au
Alexisonfire Socials
ALEXISONFIRE Announces National Australian Tour for Feb 2023
Canadian hardcore five-piece Alexisonfire today reveal they will return to Australia in February 2023, playing their first Antipodean headline dates since their 2017 tour. This summer, the band will bring their powerful on-stage energy to Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall on Friday 17 February, followed by stops in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
Local heroes Luca Brasi will open for Alexisonfire on all dates, warming audiences with their dynamic live set. One of the country’s most roadworthy outfits, the four piece never fails to electrify on the live stage, Loud Mag writing “a wonderful, emotional punk-rock performance”. Hailing from Tasmania, Luca Brasi reached a new level with Everything Is Tenuous, their sophisticated and uplifting fifth studio album, released last year.
Admired by Australian audiences, on their eighth visit down under Alexisonfire will perform songs from their celebrated catalogue, along with tunes from their new record Otherness – never before heard live by local audiences.
Otherness is the first full length studio album in over thirteen years from the group Rolling Stone declared “put Canadian post-hardcore on the map”. Their most cohesive and self-actualized record to date, across the ten tracks of Otherness the band builds a “deliciously gritty record” (Line Of Best Fit).
“As much as we love playing the old songs, we don’t want to be a nostalgia act. The only reason to come back is if we feel we still have something to say,” frontman George Pettit insists. “We spent so much time on the road thinking that if we stopped, people would lose interest. But when we went away, it only got bigger. We all carved new paths for ourselves, so coming back to Alexisonfire is a purely enjoyable creative venture. Something special happens when we get in a room together.”
Between 2002 and 2009, Alexisonfire released four hugely successful studio albums, all platinum-certified in their native Canada; Alexisonfire (2002), Watch Out (2004), Canadian No.1 Crisis (2006), and Old Crows / Young Cardinals (2009).
The band’s legacy across Canada and the world cannot be overstated; from their 2001 inception in Ontario, five guys playing aggressive rock (with no less than three of them singing and screaming) grew to a hockey-arena headlining phenomenon while pushing and pulling between spirited guitar leads, melodic might, and emotional weight.
As Revolver Magazine noted upon the release of the doomy “Familiar Drugs” comeback 7” in 2019: “It’s hard to overstate the influence Alexisonfire had in post-hardcore through the mid-2000s, their combination of singing and screaming setting the blueprint for many artists to come.”
Dallas Green’s engaging croon; the urgent attitude of Wade MacNeil; the heavy bellow of George Pettit; all anchored by a mix of vulnerability, confidence, iconoclasm, and celebratory recklessness. As every Alexisonfire song persistently expands and contracts, bassist Chris Steele and drummer Jordan Hastings remain impossibly tight, locked into unrelenting swinging grooves.
Alexisonfire has blown audiences away at major international festival appearances over Northern Hemisphere summer, including Lollapalooza across South America, Canada’s Born & Raised Festival and a “flawless” Rage Against The Machine North American support.
This February, experience music at its best when Alexisonfire take the stage with special guests Luca Brasi for four mind-blowing live shows.
ALEXISONFIRE
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS LUCA BRASI
AUSTRALIAN TOUR
FEBRUARY 2023
Presented by Chugg Entertainment and Frontier Touring
FRONTIER MEMBERS PRE-SALE
Via frontiertouring.com/alexisonfire
Runs 24 hours from: Tuesday 15 November (10am local time)
or until pre-sale allocation exhausted
GENERAL PUBLIC ON SALE
Begins: Thursday 17 November (10am local time)
FRIDAY 17 FEBRUARY
The Fortitude Music Hall | Brisbane, QLD
ticketmaster.com.au
MONDAY 20 FEBRUARY
Enmore Theatre | Sydney, NSW
ticketek.com.au
FRIDAY 24 FEBRUARY
Forum Melbourne | Melbourne, VIC
ticketek.com.au
MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY
Hindley Street Music Hall | Adelaide, SA
moshtix.com.au
Alexisonfire Socials
