Live Review: Alexisonfire w/ Moneen & Blindspott @ Billboards

Seriously, how good are Alexisonfire?! No radio play and little to no exposure on TV, yet they can still sell out a venue which holds close to 1000 people on a Wednesday night. More on that a little later…

Blindspott (NZ) opened the show and I’m not sure how they managed to land this tour because they definitely did not suit this bill. I’m all for variety but the band’s outdated approach to rap/metal didn’t really do much for me – or anyone else in the venue for that matter.

Moneen (Canada) are a band that I wasn’t too familiar with prior to this evening. I’d heard a few songs here and there but on the strength of tonight’s performance I will be purchasing as much of their music that I can get my hands on!

George (AOF vocalist) had told me last week that Moneen are a band who live to have fun – and their stage show reflected that. Every member of the band had a massive smile on their face for the entire set and the energy they projected was maintained throughout the entire set.

It was cool to see that Moneen had their own fans in the audience, as their “Getup Kids” inspired sing-a-longs received a great reaction from the crowd. I’m looking forward to seeing this band’s next tour!

For anyone who has ever seen Alexisonfire you know that this band is incapable of putting on a bad show. Their love of playing live is infectious and within seconds the majority of the crowd assembled in Billboards tonight was singing along.

Being their first tour since the release of the excellent “Crisis”, AOF focused heavily on their newer material. Set opener “Drunks, Lovers, Sinners and Saints” sounded huge and with at least 8 other tracks from “Crisis” getting a spin this evening, the crowd was in for a treat.

AOF made a name for themselves playing upbeat, screamed tracks like “44 Calibre Love Letter” and “Accidents”, so it was great to hear slower songs such as “Rough Hands” and “This Could Be Anywhere In The World” translate so well in the live environment.

Anyone who read the AOF interview we posted last week will recall George (vocals) stating that “Crisis” was written with the aim of making a great live record, and tonight’s show certainly supports that. As always George was a ball of energy on stage, Dallas and Wade’s clean vocals were note perfect and the rhythm section was flawless.

Easily one of the best 3 shows I’ve seen in 2007, and I expected nothing less!