From performances in the cafeteria at Mount Carmel Secondary School to concert stadiums around the world, Billy Talent has been there and done that.

And they are going to do it again…minus the cafeteria gigs.

The Mississauga-based band has announced a series of shows that will take their aggressive rock sound across Europe, starting in June and landing them at the RBC Amphitheatre in Toronto on July 18.

St. Catharine’s Alexisonfire will join them for two shows on the tour.

The concerts will feature an entire performance of the band’s second album, Billy Talent II, released in June of 2006, which immediately went to the top of the charts in Canada and Germany and has since sold over one million copies worldwide.

Speaking on The Drex Show, guitarist Ian D’Sa said the timing is right to bring back the older material.

“(Billy Talent II) it’s kinda gone down as a fan favourite, so we thought, this one was the one to do a bigger kinda thing for,” he said.

While the band has released six studio albums and continues to tour with essentially the original line-up, D’Sa said it has been a great experience for the band to get reacquainted with the older material.

“Going back and learning the songs that we haven’t played live in almost forever, that’s the fun, interesting part,” he said. “There was a lot of guitar stuff that I had to catch up on.”

Formed in 1993, with lead vocalist Benjamin Kowalewicz, guitarist D’Sa, bassist Jonathan Gallant, and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk, Billy Talent, the musicians met while attending Mount Carmel in Meadowvale and went under the name Pezz when they performed in the school cafeteria as part of a talent contest.

A local following soon began and then extended beyond the borders of Mississauga, where the band became part of the underground indie music scene in Toronto. A name change took place, then a record deal, and the rest, as they say, is history.

“It does make you kind of feel old,” D’Sa stated during his interview, acknowledging that 20 years have passed since the release of Billy Talent II. “But we are looking forward to playing the material.”

 


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