17 February 2023 – Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Justin Gittins
After five years between drinks, Alexisonfire have finally made their almighty return to Australia. And not just that, but they bring with them something they didn’t have last time, a new album. And while we didn’t get much from that record (spoilers for later), it was anticipated to be one of the best shows of the year, and we’re only in February. Accompanying the self-proclaimed “Only Band Ever”, were Aussie rockers, Luca Brasi. As a personal antidote to this review, Alexisonfire has been a band on my “must see bands” list for a long time. So finally, being able to cross this show off the bucket list has been a long time coming.
The night started off with Tassie rockers Luca Brasi taking to the stage for 40+ minutes of mid 2000s era sounding rock and roll. I’m not super familiar with these guys, and it seemed like a lot of people around me weren’t either. I really dug these guys though. My friend and I were talking about them during the break, and we both got major vibes of The Gaslight Anthem, mixed with some old school Jebediah vocals. The boys have also got some comedy chops too, with some jokes being made around, including one where one of the guitarists got roasted by the other members of the band for missing a part of a song. My other favourite part was that their walk out song was ‘Man, I Feel Like A Woman’ by Shania Twain. The crowd were singing loud while giggling non-stop at the fact this was their walk on track. Overall, fun vibe, and definitely a pleasant opener for what was to come.
After a short changeover, the stage of the Fortitude Music Hall was blessed with Canadian post-hardcore royalty. As each member made their way onto the stage, the crowd got louder, until all 5 guys were on stage, where they immediately busted out 2 Crisis classics, in ‘Drunks, Lovers, Sinners, and Saints’, followed quickly by ‘Boiled Frogs’. The mosh pit was going nuts for the singalongs. And even I, who has been a long term AOF fan for 20 years, couldn’t help but lose my mind to the choruses.
After playing the first single from their latest album, ‘Sweet Dreams of Otherness’, George got on the mic to talk about how Alexis shows are safe havens for all. No matter who you are, you are welcome, unless you’re a bigot, racist, misogynist, or any other type of person like that, which elicited MAJOR cheers from the crowd. George even offered to take merch off the hands of those that agree with that message personally as they left, which had me laughing a bit at the idea of him standing at the door waiting for the trash to take itself out. Then they played “an old one” in ‘Pulmonary Archery’.
The set from here out was basically a best of show, which was just freaking awesome. There were some Cardinalstunes (Accept Crime & The Northern), some more Crisis tunes (Rough Hands & This Could Be Anywhere in the World), and we even got one of my favourite songs from the latest record, ‘Sans Soleil’. They closed the set off strongly with ‘Dog’s Blood’ and ‘Young Cardinals’, with the crowd going off, begging for just one more song.
Now, as I’ve mentioned, I’ve been a fan of AOF for a number of years. There were three songs I was really hoping to hear. ‘Sans Soleil’, ‘44 Calibre Love Letter’, and ‘Accidents’. We’d already had ‘Sans Soleil’, and ‘Accidents’ is normally a mid-set song they play. ‘44CLL’ is a song they pull out from time to time, so I had less expectations for that song. But as the night drew to a close, I was still holding out for ‘Accidents’. The boys came back, and talked for a bit, before introducing….
‘Accidents’. And my god, the roof almost blew off the building. My partner grabbed me in excitement, knowing how much I love that song. And at that point, I became completely unglued. The entire crowd did the chants, the band were going insane on stage, it was legitimately perfect. The encore closed off with ‘Happiness by the Kilowatt’, with leopard print pyjama wearing drip god, Wade MacNeil, jumping to the barrier to lead the crowd with a massive singalong of the “Hey Hey, My My” part of the song, as George briefly taking over guitar duties for Wade.
This is honestly a top five all time show for me, and that’s saying something I have Iron Maiden, Elton John, Parkway Drive, and Coheed and Cambria on that list.
