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The scream and steam life of George Pettit

Alexisonfire frontman takes the screamo game seriously Who: Alexisonfire With: Spitalfield and Death From Above Where : Garfinkel’s When: Friday, Oct. 3. Doors at 9 p.m. Tickets : $10 Turn on MuchMusic.

Alexisonfire frontman takes the screamo game seriously

Who:

Alexisonfire

With:

Spitalfield and Death From Above

Where

: Garfinkel’s

When:

Friday, Oct. 3. Doors at 9 p.m.

Tickets

: $10

Turn on MuchMusic. You’re bound to hear a "coming up next" announcement for a video from Alexisonfire before too long. The video watching demographic loves the southern Ontario five-piece band, named after a lactating contortionist porn-star, and their devotion has given the band a solid berth in the audience-voted PowerShift Top 30 chart.

Quickly, before the video comes on, hit the mute button. There they are – five high-energy kids in their late-teens/early 20s. The next Not by Choice/Simple Plan-Blink 182 incarnation? Hit the mute button again.

Surprise. Instead of the punk-pop du jour it’s a frenetic, edgy metal-punk mix topped with intense screaming vocals. A blast of aural adrenaline. The kind of music that makes older generations give up on pop culture.

Some call it ‘screamo,’ a hybrid term describing the thoughtful lyrics of the emo-set yelled with abandon. But George Pettit, the 20-year-old, dorky-cool frontman isn’t too concerned with classification specifics.

"I’m pretty comfortable with whatever anyone wants to call us," says Pettit. "I have no problem with genres. If someone wants to call us screamo, they can call us screamo. They can call us ‘emo-core’ they can call us ‘scream-punk’ they can call us ‘punk-core’ they can call us ‘punk-scream-punk-core-scream,’ and ‘yell-punk-core-scream.’ I don’t care. If it makes it easier to describe us to someone else, just call us whatever."

So just how does Pettit himself describe Alexisonfire’s music?

"I just say we’re a yelly-screamy rock band."

Mr. screamy-yelly himself speaks rapid fire, like a hyperactive pixie-stick junkie who’s lost his Ritalin. To compound the situation, he’s currently at West Edmonton Mall: over-stimulation central. Dolphins are flipping through the air as he speaks. Later that night the band will play Mall superclub Red’s, the Chuck E. Cheese of the Edmonton nightclub scene complete with arcade games and its own bowling alley. Pettit is stoked.

"It’s absolutely fantastic. All the money we make tonight can be blown on video games," he enthuses. "West Edmonton Mall is an absolute trip. It’s crazy here. There’s a shooting gallery. I shot firearms earlier today."

With his dark shag and thick black glasses, Pettit could be the fourth Hanson Brother. But looks aside, it could be argued his band is the Canadian music industry’s own version of the iconic Slapshot goons. They’re young, in your face, and are selling out venues with their aggressive style.

"All the kids seem really positive," he says, referring to the current tour with Billy Talent, Spitalfield and Death From Above. "There’s lots of dancing going on, lots of angry security guards. It’s great."

While their lyrical content is in no way immature, Alexisonfire have gotten where they are by tapping into youth. The majority of their fans are the young and those that can still remember being so. Pettit, hardly an old man himself at 20, describes the experience of playing as a throwback to another age.

"It makes me feel like when I was in Grade 9, going into Toronto to see some punk band somewhere, and it was just incredible," he says, "and I hope that’s what it’s doing for other people."

Stunts like inviting fans onstage, dressing them up in swimming gear, and letting them dance around before stage "diving" into the crowd are ensuring Alexis’ shows stay on the opposite side of the spectrum from Coldplay-style sobriety.

And what Grade 9 kid could resist the chance to get up on stage and scream at the top of his or her lungs. Pettit was the first to admit to prospective bandmate Wade MacNeil, back before the group had even formed, that he couldn’t sing. But MacNeil, now Alexis’ guitarist, had other ideas, and Pettit found himself in the lead screamer’s role.

It’s a role that has required some sacrifice, he explains, as the dolphins leap in the background. A recent tour of the U.S. during which the band played consecutive nights landed Pettit in the office of a throat specialist.

"He stuck this long tube thing up my nose and looked at my vocal chords, and said there was no damage, but he gave me this big long list of Dos and Don’ts," he says.

Out are alcoholic beverages, soda pop, coffee and tea. In is a healthy diet and eight hours of sleep every night.

"Yeah, the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle is really, really nerdy. I just sleep really well, and I’ve got this facial spa that has a sinus thing that I breathe into and it steams my vocal chords. That’s another thing the doctor told me to do. I’m so dead serious," he adds.

He has to be. There’s no room in Alexisonfire for a mute screamer and Pettit knows it.

"I don’t have any shame about it. It’s pretty much the choice between me getting hammered every night and playing shows every night," he says matter of factly. "It’s not a choice at all. I’d rather be having fun than getting trashed every night."

Despite all the precautions, and the lifestyle changes and the portable spa devices, the nightly wear and tear on Pettit’s vocal chords is intense. His voice, like the youthful vibe Alexisonfire celebrates, can’t last forever. The near future holds more touring of the United States and Eastern Canada, followed by the recording of album No. 2, but beyond that, Pettit can only joke.

"We understand that it may not last forever, but we’re going to do it until it stops being fun, and I have no problem with that," he says. "When the band does fall apart, we can all work in the record industry or something. I’ll wear a suit and grow a ponytail and wear one of those dangly earrings with the cross on it."

He pauses. "It may not last forever, but it will be great while it’s here."

Catch Alexisonfire with Spitalfield and Death From Above at Garfinkel’s tonight. (Billy Talent will not accompany the tour to Whistler.) The show kicks off at 9 p.m. Tickets $10 at the door.