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It's said people mellow with age.
Just don't tell Hugh Dillon that.
"I'm hyperactive," the 34-year-old frontman of The Headstones says gleefully. "I can't keep quiet. It takes me a long time to chill out."
After six years of playing together, one would think the popular Toronto band -- whose first two releases Picture of Health and Teeth & Tissue oozed with Dillon's warped, ironic humor -- would soften its razor-sharp edge.
But one listen to the chugging guitars and sneering vocals on the band's third and latest CD, Smile and Wave, and you know the band is as misanthropic as ever.
"I don't think we're misa ... whatever that word is," says Dillon, who brings his Headstones to the Republik tonight.
"I can't say I really hate mankind. But there is that part of society which looks down on people because of what they wear or what they look like and I can't stand that (garbage)."
Although the charismatic Dillon is well-known for mouthing off to the media about anything from politics to MuchMusic veejays, he says he has learned to bite his tongue.
"I find I get a lot further without yelling at everyone," he chuckles.
"Once I figured out how (the music industry) worked, it was alright."
Now he has started to acquaint himself with another industry -- movies.
Last year, Dillon appeared in Canadian director Bruce McDonald's acclaimed mock documentary, Hard Core Logo.
His performance as the angry and self-destructive bad-ass singer of an aging punk band won him critical praise, as well as catching the attention of film hipster Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction), who's talking to Dillon about possibly starring in a future film.
"When we sat down together, it was like a mutual admiration society."