WINNIPEG - News flash for all you Coke-bottle-lensed sensitive guys out there: Girls dig you.

Or at least they dig Alexisonfire singer-guitarist Dallas Green, who kinda looks like you. The whisper to fellow AOF frontman George Pettit's scream, Green's feel-sorry-for-me take on teen heartthrob had the overwhelmingly female crowd of 1,900 swooning at the Convention Centre Sunday night.

Kicking off with Drunks, Lovers, Sinners and Saints off their Canadian chart-topper Crisis, the Ontario quintet best known for their good-cop (Green) vs. bad-cop (Pettit) approach to the ueber-trendy screamo subgenre took the stage at 9:40 p.m. (A touch late for a school night, don't ya think?)

"Tonight, rock solid from start to finish," Pettit declared two songs in. But that wasn't quite true.

As opposed to the gritty, deafening roar of past gigs, like their memorable Burton Cummings and Convention Centre shows last year, AOF showcased a variety of skills they've been honing since their 2001 inception, from guitarist-singer (and frontman of side project Black Lungs) Wade MacNeil's more prominent stage vocals to the melodic whine Green fine-tuned earlier this year with solo act, City and Colour.

The young crowd -- most in a uniform of skinny jeans, black T-shirts and eyeliner -- dug for their lighters (what, were their cellphones dead?) near the middle of the 90-minute show for a string of softer rockers, including single This Could Be Anywhere in the World.

MacNeil got a little nostalgic following the lull: "I suppose we all remember when Alexis played at Burton Cummings," he said (somewhat optimistically, considering the age of this crowd) before offering a shout-out to those longtime fans with a handful of "rippers." While the roomy half-ballroom was prime for moshing, the pit was more goldfish bowl than shark tank, with many fans lingering on the outskirts.

By keeping a balance of tracks from their self-titled debut, sophomore Watch Out! and last month's Crisis, AOF managed to strike chords with both their hardcore and mellower underage followings but did little to astound either.

A shirtless Pettit shrieked bloody murder, writhing around his centre-stage hub -- but it was Green who, tucked away to the left, wooed fans with his emo-tions.