“We were on tour, and I was feeling kind of down, a little homesick, when my friend Dallas Green here comes strolling into the room with a pair of daisy dukes on. This picked me right up, and I decided to start cutting my jeans a little higher than usual. Ever since then, I can run faster, jump higher, and generally rock harder.” – George from Alexisonfire

Comments like the above remind of you the lighter side of hardcore music. Just because these guys are screaming their guts out doesn’t mean that they don’t have a sense of humour. It’s the one thing that sets Alexisonfire apart from the pack, and it’s these sorts of qualities that separate the headliners from the opening acts.

This leads us into A Wilhelm Scream. (Unfortunately, I missed the first band of the night, and I apologize to fans of Idiot Pilot.) As I previously alluded to, there is a defining quality in a headlining band which A Wilhelm Scream most certainly lacked. The band didn’t give me what I wanted. They were only wearing the minimum pieces of flair, if you stretch the meaning of “flair” to apply to stage movements, musical ingenuity, and general stage banter. It seemed like they were doing what was deemed expected of their genre: nothing more, and nothing less. A Wilhelm Scream were a musically talented and tight unit, but their opener status was made clear by their lackluster performance.

Next up were the Receiving End of Sirens. A triple-guitar/triple-vocal offensive served these Massachusetts natives well. Thanks to co-frontmen Gay-Tom-Petty and Lumberjack-Ted, they generated a different vibe than the other bands of the night. Utilizing atmospheric keys and electronic break-beats via a laptop on stage, they brought the energy down a bit, which I appreciated, considering my recurring asthma attacks from punk-fighting. As a fan of heavy music and electronic music, Receiving End of Sirens really impressed me with their sound. I’ll put it this way: I’m cheap, but I still bought their CD.

Then it was time for Alexisonfire’s debut - the time for Canada to show the Americans what a concert should look like, or better yet, feel like. Ontario’s Alexisonfire have been rocking out their homeland for years, even playing a venue in little ol’ Windsor several summers ago. This ‘away-game’ in Detroit was meant to rally the troops across the border, but when the band asked how many of the young crowd were Canadian, it didn’t seem like anyone wasn’t. That showed them, since they had promised to come back to Windsor all those years ago, and have yet to do so.

The first time I saw them, they rocked the shit out of Windsor, even with the sun still up and a sparse crowd. This time around, I was expecting the same rocking of shit, but was slightly let down. Don’t get me wrong, Alexisonfire still know how to do it up, but their lower-key set made it obvious that the band had been on the road for a while, and were getting tired of being ridiculously hilarious/violent every night of the week. This change of pace is just as evident on their latest album, “Watch Out”, where the subject matter of their songs has shifted from killing ex-girlfriends to saving the lives of depressed teenagers. Throughout Alexisonfire’s set, it felt like the crowd was holding out for the old songs to officially go nuts. Call it the sophomore curse if you want, but with their latest work, they are genuinely trying to be more emo and less screamo, if you will. This sudden shift in agenda is fine by me, but the pack of wild Canadian kids seemed like they wanted a bit more warning.

Despite all of this, when you combine onstage magic tricks, a bassist with innovative dance moves, and ridiculously short cut-off jeans, the show is well worth the price of admission.

The merch table was well-stocked with wares from all the bands: t-shirts, buttons, stickers, and the like.

-Andrew Bondy