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Alexisonfire and Underoath in Sydney – review and photos

March 13, 2025

When the tour of Alexisonfire and Underoath (celebrating 20 yrs of They’re Only Chasing Safety) was announced, I am certain that every elder emo (such as myself) near a capital city messaged all their friends to demand they get tickets. As far as nostalgia of the glory years of emo/hardcore/pop punk goes, these two bands stand out as two of the greats.

To combine them for a tour Down Under is almost as if prayers were being answered.

We went along to Hordern Pavilion on a drizzly Tuesday night ready to sing our lungs out with two bands that have a truly packed catalogue of hits.

First up was a band that was new to me, GEL. Having listened through the week to get a feel for them, I was so pleasantly surprised to see that not only were they entertaining to watch, but they were just as vibrant, grungy and intense as their album.

The room was filling out now as Underoath took to the stage with an unusually quiet and slow start with Some Will Seek Forgiveness, Others Escape which built into a bursting start with Young and Aspiring to get everyone moving.

Throughout the album play through, the band put on a masterclass of heavy performance with the crisp clean vocals soaring from drummer Aaron Gillespie, while Spencer Chamberlain was positively flexing with his heavy screams and raspy cleans.

With every song, the crowd was equally invested, with multiple sing alongs, claps and fist pumping to match Spencer’s youthful energy.

As the album drew to a close, they brought out a couple of new songs, with the band not having been to Australia since about 2017, these hadn’t been seen live on our shores before!

Alexisonfire is a band that has stood the test of time. Despite a few years hiatus from 2011, they reformed and returned to touring and released Otherness in 2022 which has now become an album on frequent rotation on my Spotify.

Blasting out with Young Cardinals, it was clear this would be a high energy show with ample crowd participation.

With a great blend of new and old songs, there was something for everyone. To my right was a group of guys in their 40s yelling along and hugging as they heard an old song come on, while to my left was a father with his kid on his shoulders bopping along, clearly passing down exceptional musical taste to his children.

Dallas Green was faultless with his impeccable and renowned clean vocals which are the perfect contrast to the raspy growls of George Pettit and Wade McNeil.

You can tell by watching the band that they truly love what they do and are a solid unit, with a virtually unchanged lineup in their 24 year career.

After seemingly finishing with Accidents the crowd chants and screams brought them back out for 3 more songs to finish out the show. Wrapping the whole evening up with a huge rendition of Happiness by the Kilowatt with a snippet of Shout by Tear for Fears thrown in the middle before bringing it back to the end of their song and punching out the last few chords to an eruption of applause from the appreciative crowd.

This was a truly memorable show, with two of the best of our time coming together to treat an excited Aussie crowd to some anthems of our youth as well as some newer songs that will surely feel the same in another decade when we are going grey and bringing our kids along for the journey should we be so lucky as to have these bands still touring.

Words by Aidan Willis. Photos by Adam Davis-Powell.