Alexisonfire Are Releasing a Live Album from Their Hometown Born & Raised Festival
The St. Catharines, Ontario band are bringing the festival back this summer, and they'll release LIVE Born & Raised 2022, St Catharines ON just in time for fans to hear it first.
After a two year hiatus, Alexisonfire are resurrecting their hometown festival Born & Raised on July 5 and 6 at Montebello Park in St. Catharines, Ontario. Just in time, they're releasing a live album from the last time they held the festival, in 2022.
The album, LIVE Born & Raised 2022, St Catharines ON, captures their career-spanning set from the inaugural edition of the festival. In front of their hometown fans, they played songs from throughout their more-than-two-decades long career.
Fittingly, the first single, "Little Girls Pointing and Laughing," is the very first song Alexisonfire wrote as a band 22 years ago. Originally recorded for their 2002 self-titled debut, the live rendition is performed just steps from where they first conceived of it. It perfectly captures the vocal interplay between George Pettit's guttural scream and Dallas Green's more honeyed emo-folk singing, as well as occasionally chugging hardcore guitars and an epic song structure that feels like a journey.
The album also includes a rarity: the first-ever live performance of the song "Jubella," also from their debut.
The album is for sale digitally on June 27 here and available for pre-order on vinyl here.
“St. Catharines was a perfect breeding ground for young independent bands," says Alexisonfire's George Pettit. "There was no shortage of venues where you could play or promote a show. So in the early 2000s, Alexisonfire learned a lot of what we needed to know coming up in St. Catharines. Coming back and playing a massive festival in Montebello Park was not only fun but served as an opportunity to give something back to the city that taught us how to be a band.”
This year's Born & Raised festival features Alexisonfire and member Dallas Green's other successful singer-songwriter project City and Colour. It also features an eclectic lineup of both Canadian bands, including Metric, Sloan and Dooms Children and heavier pop-punk and hardcore bands The Used, Counterparts and Ekkstacy.
Alexisonfire's longtime manager and owner of their label Dine Alone was recognized on Billboard Canada's recent 2024 Power Players list, with a shoutout for his role in the return of Born & Raised.
Find the full tracklist for LIVE Born & Raised 2022, St Catharines ON below:
01. Committed to the Con - Live
02. Accept Crime - Live
03. .44 Caliber Love Letter - Live
04. Accidents - Live
05. Boiled Frogs - Live
06. Sweet Dreams of Otherness - Live
07. A Dagger Through the Heart of St. Angeles - Live
08. Waterwings (And Other Poolside Fashion Faux Pas) - Live
09. Jubella - Live
10. Little Girls Pointing and Laughing - Live
12. Rough Hands - Live
13. Young Cardinals - Live
14. The Northern - Live
15. This Could Be Anywhere in the World - Live
16. Dogs Blood - Live
17. Happiness by the Kilowatt - Live