Another Saturday night, another four-band punk rock ear-shredder at the PNE Forum. Is there a more vexing location for aggressive guitar music? Finding the venue's elusive sonic sweet spot is already hard enough, but it just upped and vanished for Tucson, Arizona's the Bled. (What a horribly appropriate name in this context.) The band's discordant screamodrama challenges the ears at the best of times, but here, Jeremy Talley and Ross Ott's guitars knocked signals in the most gruesomely unlistenable way. It was only powerhouse drummer Mike Pedicone who broke through, like a metronomic robot in inexplicable command of conventional sound physics. His beats were all that we really had to hang on to, besides vocalist James Munoz's gonzo élan. Munoz strolled out in a striped balaclava and an enormously puffy outdoor vest, challenged everybody in the building to a thumb war, and displayed a laconic, cool on-stage presence when he wasn't intent on blowing his own head apart with metalcore workouts like "Shadetree Mechanics".

Arriving next, RCA recording artists Anti-Flag told us to "renounce nationalism" in one of a number of either taped or live sermons peppered throughout its set. (Ironically, in an emotional outburst 90 minutes later, Alexisonfire guitarist Wade MacNeil gushed, "I love this fuckin' country!") The speechifying was energetic, even if the lefty Pittsburgh punkers missed an opportunity with "Fuck Police Brutality" to spank Vancouver over its recent history. More importantly, bassist Chris #2 proved his unimpeachable sincerity by diving headfirst into the pit for "Wake Up!", and later thanking the city's punk community for the support he received when his sister was murdered this past February.

With Anti-Flag's set growing more impressive, the four-piece even managed to beat the sound curse for a ringing, uplifting "1 Trillion Dollar$", and a fine new song called "We All Have Our Vices". Chris #2 bounded on-stage again to join Alexisonfire during "This Could Be Anywhere in the World", about halfway through a crowd-pleasing hour or so from the St. Catherines quintet. Fans were treated to everything but the bonus tracks from most recent album Crisis, with "Boiled Frogs" bringing matters to a sweaty peak. The older songs have matured nicely, with "Pulmonary Archery" and "Control" receiving epic treatments. Guitarist Dallas Green's singing has become so good that Alexisonfire is starting to sound a little trapped inside its ugly-pretty format, making the shirtless, beefed-out George Pettit slightly redundant in his screaming cheerleader role. That aside, and given the narrow musical focus, the band has an impressive way of finding hooks inside all those unresolved progressions.

One thing it seriously lacks—despite generously bearded and big-tittied bassist Chris Steele bouncing around in a sweat-drenched white T-shirt—is sex. Slinking on-stage at 6:30 p.m., Vancouver's own Pride Tiger was the only outfit on this bill liable to give these kids the horn. By the time the supple quartet was up to speed with a warm and funky "The Lucky Ones", it had already kicked seven sexy shades of shit out of a suburban audience too young to remember when music was more than just violent.

Georgia Straight, December 2007