Alexisonfire (performing Crisis), Billy Talent (performing II), Touché Amoré – Wembley Arena, London, 2026

Despite it being one of the hottest days of the year so far, with red warnings issued across the city for a heatwave, the walk to Wembley Arena is still populated by people largely dressed in all black, willing to absorb more light to dress correctly for arguably the best post-hardcore/emo billing of this summer, with Billy Talent playing the whole of II, followed by Alexisonfire playing Crisis in it’s entirety.

Rounding off this lineup and opening tonight is Touché Amoré, a phenomenal addition to an already excellent bill. As their set progresses they gradually build and build, opening in a fairly ambient way with ~, into New Halloween before finishing with a near wall of sound with Flowers and You. The heat doesn’t stop them from putting on an energetic performance, vocalist Jeremy Bolm taking up the whole stage as he screams each line at the audience. You couldn’t really have hoped for a better intro to the evening.

Billy Talent have had the right idea how to build up to their entrance; the huge screen at the back of the stage showing a retrospective of their career in photos, with a bunch of absolute crackers showing them in both their most intimate, in your face, venues right up to packed out arenas. Tonight, of course, is on the bigger end of the scale, as demonstrated with the arena sized singalongs during The Suffering, the crowd willing to ignore the heat to throw their arms up and scream the chorus back. I will admit, I grew up more with the first record but it’s easy to forget just how many big hitters II has. For me the intro to the set, Devil in a Midnight Mass, is still the biggest hitter of the set, but Covered in Cowardice comes close, a track I haven’t listened to in a long time – I forgot just how good the guitar playing on this song is, there’s something interesting about them, an almost angular art-rock approach to post-hardcore. It’s unusual for the penultimate band on the bill to get an encore but it makes sense in the context of the evening, the band moving to Rusted From The Rain from III to start a run of later tracks to round off a lively set. It’s incredible how well the songs from II have held up – despite being released 20 years ago they have a quality to them that would still sound unique if they were to be released today.

“It’s funny to be celebrating an album about a historic blizzard while in the middle of a historic heatwave” announces Alexisonfire guitarist Wade MacNeil part way through their playthrough of 2006’s Crisis. Opening the set with a video montage showing the destruction of the Blizzard of 1977, which featured on the album artwork and inspired elements of the lyrics, showing the brutality; a stark comparison to the record highs reached outside. Yet it’s the second time in a year that Alexisonfire have turned up in the UK to perform in a heatwave, with their 2000Trees and Brixton shows last year also seeing notable highs. We’re thrown into the record quickly thanks to the jolting start of Drunks, Lovers, Sinners and Saints – which combines brutal vocals screams, lush guitar layering, perfectly timed punk drumming and some deceptively fast bass runs, all of which are pulled off perfectly live by a band who look like they’re having the time of their life. This Could Be Anywhere in the World takes me right back to my teenage years, the repeated bell hits on the ride cymbal just realign everything in my mind and I’m back to hearing Crisis for the first time.

Title track Crisis is always the highlight of any album playthrough for me, the combination of George Pettit and Dallas Green’s contrasting vocals between verse and chorus just connect with everyone, the clean chorus elements demanding you sing along. Not content with just playing the album in it’s entirety, the band return to play b-side Thrones for the first time before wrapping things up with Pulmonary Archery from their self titled record and Happiness by the Kilowatt from Watch Out! With that, ‘The Only Band Ever’ bow out, leaving a sweaty, but satisfied, crowd behind. When the Crisis/II album show got announced I was extremely excited to see it but, I’ll admit, when I got on the sauna of a train into London I was a bit apprehensive about just how lively a performance (and crowd) we’d get on the night – I shouldn’t have been though, with a lineup this strong it was always going to be a good night. All three bands gave it all their energy and the crowd was still up for a lively night. It would be rude not to also praise the staff at Wembley Arena who did an incredible job of looking after everyone and keeping people hydrated – walking past a bar and being able to grab an icy pint of water, ready to go, made everything that bit more comfortable.