INCONCERT
WHAT: Billy Talent with opening acts Alexisonfire, Against Me! And Cancer Bats
WHEN: Saturday, 6:45 p.m. (doors 5:45 p.m.)
WHERE: Interior Savings Centre
TICKETS: $35 and $45, available from Ticketmaster outlets
By MIKE YOUDS
Daily News Staff Reporter
Four hard-rocking Canadian bands, two of them Juno-nominated, rattle the girders at Interior Savings Centre Saturday.
Headliners Billy Talent and No. 2 act Alexisonfire join Against Me! and Cancer Bats Saturday in what promises to be one of the biggest if not the loudest arena concert of the season. Kamloops is third on a tour of more than 50 Canadian and U.S. cities.
“The show last night was great,” Alexisonfire vocalist George Pettit said en route from Victoria to Penticton. “It was a lot of fun. The spirit is high amongst the bands here.”
Like Billy Talent, which is promoting its third album, Alexisonfire also has a fresh batch of material on the wing — their fourth album, Old Crows/Young Cardinals.
Like Billy Talent — nominated for single of the year for Rusted From The Rain, album of the year, group of the year and rock album of the year for Billy Talent III — Alexisonfire has its own iron in the flames. The group is nominated for rock band of the year.
“We’re not going to win it,” a sardonic Pettit declared. “We’re up against the biggest bands in Canada in ascending order with us nestled down at the bottom.”
He made it clear that live performance is what fuels the band’s high-energy music.
“The fact I get to wake up every morning and play music in front of a bunch of young people, that’s affirmation. It’s not a competition thing, making music. It’s all subjective. I know we’re not the best rock band in Canada.”
They once described their sound as “two Catholic school girls in mid-knife-fight.” Since their third album, Crisis, the band has moved beyond their signature style of “screamo,” not out of any conscious desire to change but because it had lost some of its avant-garde edge.
“When we first started it was a place where kids went. Then it definitely stopped being that after a while. Now it’s Kraft Dinner and white Wonder Bread.”
And, like Billy Talent — which performed during the Olympic closing ceremony — Alexisonfire has its own Games story to tell. It’s not a pretty one, though.
They were playing a free, all-ages show in Vancouver’s Yaletown two weeks ago when chaos erupted. A barrier came crashing down, injuring 30 people, nine of whom had to be hospitalized. Sixteen seconds into their first song, Alexisonfire’s show was over.
“I think it was just one of those fluke events,” Pettit said. “One loose bolt and 7,000 people came surging forward. It could have been worse. It could have been much worse.”
