Alexisonfire, the Ontario hardcore punk sensation, has been giving 'er for more than a year and a half, roaming from shore to shore - and far beyond - with only a few pauses in a jam-packed schedule.
There's one leg to go: a Canadian headlining tour beginning Friday that takes them from Victoria to Toronto, including their first show in Vancouver since a free Olympic concert there went horribly wrong.
If you want to catch them, do it now. Because after this swing, the band that lives on the road is heading home - for a while. Alexisonfire, which has never shied away from an ambitious touring schedule, is talking about taking things down just a tiny notch.
"I can't leave for 10 months out of the year any more," says front man George Pettit, who had his first child last December. "I think we're all getting older too and we've got a lot more invested around home and none of us really have any interest in touring for 10 months out of the year any more."
The touring has been a big part of their success. Their live show is an experience: loud and relentless; a trip. But they're not the kids they used to be, and priorities - and a lot of other things - have changed since Alexisonfire was first formed in 2001 and most of the guys were in their late teens.
Since then, the band has won a Juno, lost a drummer (Jordan Hastings replaced Jesse Ingelevics) and made a name for itself. Almost nobody mispronounces Alexisonfire as "Alex is on fire" any more ("Alexis on fire" is correct). They've moved out of St. Catharines, Ont., and traded their insulation-factory jam space there for a new spot in Burlington, between Toronto and Hamilton. Nowadays, when Pettit runs into other musicians such as Kenny Bridges from Moneen, they generally engage in "daddy talk," as he calls it.
On Saturday night, the guys will play Vancouver. Nine months after an Olympic debacle, the incident remains fresh in their minds. Crowds broke through barricades at the beginning of a free concert, rushing the stage and injuring 19. Within seconds, the show was called off.
"People just kept piling on top of one another," says Pettit, who adds that after announcing that the show was cancelled, people left in an orderly fashion, actually singing O Canada on the way out. "It was pretty unreal.
Pettit says they're hoping to get anyone who was injured at the Olympic concert onto the guest list for the Vancouver gig.
When they played some dates elsewhere in British Columbia last March, some of the Olympic show survivors turned out. "They shared their war stories with us and showed us their bruises and cuts that were still there," vocalist/guitarist Dallas Green says. "As hard as it was to watch it happen, it was hard to see kids affected by it a month later. So it will be nice to hopefully go back and just play a show. 'Cause that's what we were trying to do: Just play a show."
The band's fourth studio album, Old Crows/Young Cardinals, was released in June, 2009, and they've been touring in one form or another ever since. This month, they released Dog's Blood, an EP. With four urgent, screamo tracks - one of them instrumental - and Green singing only the refrain and the end of the title track, it's a departure from Old Crows. But not necessarily a new direction.
"I don't think you should take any Alexisonfire record as being like what we're gonna sound like forever," Pettit said from Hamilton, where he lives.
Green says he wasn't even going to sing on Dog's Blood, but Pettit thought he should. "Just because I do sing in the band, there's no need to force it if it's not meant to be."
Their various side projects have taken on a life of their own, Green's in particular. As City and Colour (a play on his name), his melodic, introspective singer-songwriter fare couldn't sound more different from his day job.
"It became something more than I ever thought it would," Green says from Toronto. "Also, I don't have a ton of faith in myself, so if you had told me when I put that [first]record out that it would have become what it became, I wouldn't have listened."
He says he has a lot of new material written and plans to make a new City and Colour record "soon."
Alexisonfire guitarist/vocalist Wade MacNeil, who has just released an EP with Black Lungs, says the extracurricular work doesn't cause tension. In fact, it makes the band better. "I think by doing the different projects, it keeps everything a little bit more focused, to be honest. It makes Alexisonfire what it is."
They're speaking shortly after returning from Europe, where Green battled some voice problems (fixed with Throat Coat tea, manuka honey and a few nights of trying not to sing too hard) and their Halloween dress-in-drag tradition fell kind of flat in Dortmund, Germany. But the tour was a hit with fans - and reviewers.
Now, the guys are looking forward to the home stretch - emphasis on home.
"There is a closet sense of nationalism when you're playing around Canada," Pettit says. "I know it's pretty un-punk to say that, but you definitely feel a little bit patriotic. You appreciate that you're Canadian."
Alexisonfire has upcoming dates in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, North Bay, Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston, London, Ont., and Toronto (theonlybandever.com).
Marsha Lederman