"Whoever Is On Fire, They're Here"

"Screamo" has got to be the coolest sounding name of any genre in music. Screamo, spawning from "emo" (emotional hardcore), is a conglomerate of heavy metal rock added by a band member, whose job is to chronically scream lyrics. This mixture produces the relatively uncharted sub-genre that is now in its embryonic stage.

One of the popularly growing screamo bands is Alexisonfire, who will be playing at the Showcase Theater in Buffalo tomorrow night.

Alexisonfire, originally from nearby St. Catharines, Ontario, has grown from five hungry and ambitious teens into a distinguished band that has extended their influence across the globe. It's the typical screamo dream.

"(The growth) became overwhelming two years ago and it hasn't slowed down," said guitarist/vocalist Dallas Green.

In the next seven days, the young artists have five shows. In the next month, they'll be performing 23 times. At this pace, it seems inevitable for a band to burn out or find the back-to-back-to-back concerts as tedious as cubicle work.

Green completely disagrees with this assertion.

"I'm playing music for a living, if you don't have fun doing this every night, you shouldn't be doing it," he said. "I get jacked before every show because I get to play guitar for a living."

Their concoction of energy, skill and dedication has successfully sent them connecting the dots with American and Canadian cities, stopping at each to scream their lungs out, tallying up another club's worth of Alexisonfire fans.

After their North American tour, they'll go overseas to share their unique sound with fan bases in Japan, Australia, and Europe who have already warmed up to the gold-status CD, "Watch Out" (Equal Vision).

Alexisonfire is not a band solely celebrated by screamo enthusiasts. The average rock 'n' roll fan might agree that their music isn't too hardcore or overloaded with throaty, unintelligible lyrics. They write songs that parents might even recognize as music, rather than "noise."

Green uses his golden vocal cords for singing, not screaming. His singing effectually balances the hardcore facets of screamo with more mainstream aspects of rock, allowing for a wider fan base than some screamo bands that might alienate potential fans.

Green claims that some screamo bands can't always sing as well as it might sound.

"I think a lot of them use Auto-Tune, the stuff that makes Britney Spears sound like she can actually sing," said Green. "I like to pride myself that I'm actually able to sing."

The quality of music is enhanced by their strangely anomalous lyrics. In the song, "A Dagger Through The Heart Of St. Angeles," the lyrics read: "For what would happen on that baseball diamond/ When love reached beneath her plaid jumper/ Pulled out a switch blade and drove it/ Directly through the heart of St. Angeles/ Any notion of self-government was left bleeding on the pitchers mound."

Green claims that the unusual lyrics stem from an attempt to deviate from the norm.

"We are trying to sing about stories, other bands just sing about heart songs," he said.