Alexisonfire
May 2, 2007
The Limelight (Belfast, Northern Ireland)

I can’t call myself a fan of anything hardcore. Hardcore just seems to mean a more serious, heavier version of whatever the regular version of it is, and I guess I just distrust people who are too into it. They’re always etching things into their arms with knives, or getting haircuts that are classified as weapons, and talking to you with that hundred yard stare than ‘nam vets sport all year round. Conventional wisdom (‘pop wisdom?’) tells us these people are to be avoided, they won’t like us, and they might hurt us when they sniff out what pussies we are (‘soft-dar?’ a bit like gay-dar for punks?). And post-hardcore? I can’t even imagine that.

For all my sensibilities though, I find it impossible to dislike Alexisonfire. After catching their barnstorming performance at Toronto’s V-Fest last September, AOF represent to me all that is great about live music. Pure energy emanates from them like the angel Gabriel himself came down a lit a fire under their asses, transcending differences, and manifesting the tribal mentality that is so often missing in rock shows these days. Damn it, they make you feel proud to be there.

So there was no chance I was going to miss the show in my hometown of Belfast, especially in the relatively tiny Limelight, housing a few hundred sweaty locals. Sure I’ve seen AOF command a festival stage as the sun climbed down from the sky, but isn’t a tiny rock club the home of hardcore, where we, the fans, can stand with our heads in the speakers whilst our feet fly through the air?

First off, this is an all ages show. In Belfast, it’s like opening Pandora’s Box and letting all the frantic little demons of your imagination out. The kids are alright, yeah, but they scare the bejesus out of you. They just stagger around, swaggering their sweat-drenched selves into the midst of a dancefloor battleground, and going, for all intents and purposes, completely mental.

Lucky, then, that AOF have them wrapped around their little fingers. Seeing the band mount the tiny little stage and launch into “Drunks Lovers Sinners And Saints” is just rocket fuel to the packed, black t-shirt-clad masses. Pedants won’t be forgiven for reckoning an AOF track is all noise no lyrics: they haven’t spent time with teenagers who know every fricking word to every fricking song. So much for all that Take That bullshit. And damn right we have a voice.

It was the kind of occasion that brought a smile to your face, a distilled epiphany of sorts. George could barely keep himself from grinning throughout the show, reminding me fondly of when Anthrax used to be disowned from the metal scene for being ‘too happy’. But AOF revelled in the adoration, and rewarded every drop of it.

Current album Crisis made up the vast majority of the set, and with Dallas singing note-perfect on “Boiled Frogs,” “We Are The Sound” and “This Could Be Anywhere In The World,” it was a band who knew the music inside out and could still make it sound fresh when played live. It’s a tribute to AOF’s musicianship that they stayed solid whilst throwing themselves around the mini-stage with gusto. Jets of water erupted from the front of the crowd over the rest of us, the lights blazed, the fans cheered. It felt sooooo good.
Sadly the whole show was over before it had begun, or so it felt. The audience had been worked into frenzy, and by the time they closed the encore with “Accidents” you could have felt that, but for all the love in the Limelight, they would have torn it to the ground. And so we all staggered out into the twilight, whilst Katy Daly’s next door resounded to the penalty shootout in the Liverpool V Chelsea football game. It was a night of passions all round then, and one never to be forgotten. AOF retain their reputation as one of the greatest live shows out there. Here’s to seeing them again.

- Kid Lupin 








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