Spotlight: Dallas Green has evolved from hardcore rocker to sensitive troubadour who fills soft-seat theatres

By Michael White | Photography by Norman Wong

For most of the last decade, Dallas Green was best known as the guitarist and co-frontman of Alexisonfire. The group played an extreme form of guitar rock called screamo, typified by whiplash tempos, raw-nerve confessional lyrics and vocals that sound like a kid trapped in a garburator. Most screamo bands live out their days playing hole-in-the-wall venues; Alexisonfire hit huge, with albums debuting in the Top 10 and videos in constant rotation on MuchMusic. But Green had another side to him: starting in 2005, he began to record and perform solo as City and Colour (a play on his first and last names). The new persona revealed him to be a sensitive troubadour—a neo–Neil Young for the generation that grew up in the wake of grunge. To Green’s surprise, the first two City and Colour albums went platinum and earned him a pair of Junos. The third, Little Hell, topped this country’s album charts upon its release last spring and reached the Top 30 in the U.S. With his solo career eclipsing his day job in Alexisonfire, Green finally announced he was leaving the band, which subsequently broke up. The move cost Green some fans, but for many more, City and Colour is the perfect soundtrack for the transition from manic teens and 20s into a more introspective 30s and beyond—i.e., the beard years. His shift into mellowness is evident in his choice of venue, too. Though he could easily book himself into arenas, Green has opted for multi-night stands in more intimate theatres, like Massey Hall. In Green’s new musical world, there’s no need for a mosh pit.

MUSIC
City and Colour
Feb. 10 and 11
Massey Hall