The world of live music has taken an absolute battering over the past few years, firstly with the COVID-19 pandemic shutting everything down and now with a cost of living crisis that has seen big name bands cancelling full tours due to them being economically unviable. In contrast to all the doom and gloom, it has brought Canadian post-hardcore rockers Alexisonfire out of retirement sharing their first album in over ten years with the world. Tonight, they returned to Leeds for the second time this year for a headline show at the O2 Academy having played the Jägermeister stage at Slam Dunk festival earlier in the year.
One thing we found surprising for a near sell out show was how few people were queuing outside the venue when we arrived around 15 minutes before the doors opened, although by the time the first support band had finished their set, the floor of the venue would be absolutely full to capacity.
Up first were local lads Higher Power who did a more than adequate job of warming up the now growing crowd on a cold October evening. The band were able to show the audience a decent sample of their two studio albums Soul Structure and 27 Miles Underwater despite their relatively short set. While Jimmy “J-Town” Wizard on lead vocals gave an impressive vocal performance and made several attempts the get the crowd involved with the set, the show was stolen by Ethan Wilkinson on bass, who had impressive energy. He spent most of the time bouncing around the stage, even if space was very limited due to the equipment for the next two bands take up most of the stage.
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Boston Manor were next to take to the stage and judging by the number of their t-shirts in the crowd, they had brought quite a following with them. Boston Manor are a band that I hadn’t heard much from, until I saw their surprise set at Slam Dunk Festival in 2021 and I have been a fan ever since.
Starting with the massive tracks “‘Carbon Mono” and “Desperate Pleasures” from their 2021 EP Desperate Times Desperate Pleasures there was instant confidence from lead vocalist Henry Cox and the rest of the band. The audience seemed very pleased with their new material as there were mosh pits from the very beginning which continued through the even newer tracks of “Passenger” and “Crocus” from the band’s new album Datura. The rest of the set was like a whistle-stop tour of their older material with tracks from several different albums and EP’s, before ending with the hugely popular “Halo”.
It was hard to deny that the band from Blackpool had impressed on the Yorkshire stage, but they did make a point of mentioning that they had made in through to the final song of their set without anyone starting a “Yorkshire!” chant, which of course… Well, you can guess what happened next.
I’ll start this part of the review with a little disclaimer. I was never a massive Alexisonfire fan during the early 2000’s, only knowing a handful of songs (but this may have been because I was 7 when they started out!). However, with the gig being in Leeds, it was easy to go straight from work and with Boston Manor as a support band, I revisited their back catalogue and decided I liked what I heard so decided to head out to see their show. Looking back at it now, I was clearly in the minority only knowing a few songs as this was definitely not one of those shows where fans are waiting for that one big hit to be played.
From the first track, “Drunks, Lovers, Sinners and Saints” from the band’s 2006 album Crisis, it was clear that Alexisonfire are back in a big way and that the crowd were planning on matching their energy for the whole evening. Lead vocalist George Pettit had the whole crowd in the palm of his hand for the entire set while bassist Chris Steele appeared to be having the time of his life encouraging the audience to bounce around while he was crawling on the stage.
The audience needed no encouragement to sing along to every word during the chorus of “Boiled Frogs” which was the second track of the night. Despite the band’s 2022 album Otherness having a noticeably different sound to their previous work, the three tracks they played from it (“Blue Spade”, “Sans Soleil” and “Sweet Dreams of Otherness”) fit into the set flawlessly.
They only took a break from the music a few time during the set, once to give a message of inclusiveness saying “Regardless of your gender or race, this is for everybody” and later in the set to say “Fuck the Tory Bastards”. Two slightly contradictory messages, but two statements I can agree with. Throughout the set there were constant crowd surfers and a large pit in the centre of the room, however the size of the pit and number of crowd surfers increased during the last song of the main set, arguably one of their biggest hits – “This Could Be Anywhere in the World”.
Returning for a two-song encore of “Young Cardinals” and “Happiness by the Kilowatt”, the band left the stage tonight having proven two things. Firstly that even after so long away they still have a remarkable stage presence, and secondly that the fans are delighted to have them touring again.
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Pics by Jack Barker Photography
