Two of Canada’s finest slingers of riffs and good times – Cancer Bats and Comeback Kid – are heading to St. John’s on October 8th at The Rockhouse in St. John’s.

Direct support provided by Jim Jones & The Kool-Aid Jammers and Of The Black.

“I started planning this show in 2019/20,” shared promoter Johnny Rawkhard. “It was going to happen in the summer of 2020, but I’m incredibly happy to finally make this happen on October 8th!”

Set times are as follows:

Canadian heavy metal legends, the truest of the original gangsters, Exciter will make their – unbelievably  long awaited – Newfoundland debut on July 23rd at The Rock House in St. John’s.

Established all the way back in 1979, the trio of founding members Dan Beehler (vocals/drums), Allan Johnson (bass) and newly minted guitarist Daniel Dekay have long since been established as one of the pillars of Canadian metal, earning god-tier status alongside heavyweights Annihilator, Sacrifice, Razor, Anvil and Voivod for their genre-shaping work in the 1980s.

Sitting down with the multi-versed stick-man and mic-slayer Beehler, and the career metalhead reflects on over four decades of music and memories, including the impending 40th anniversary of Exciter’s debut album Heavy Metal Maniac.

“It was a long time ago, but it’s fascinating that we’re still out there f***ing playing those songs that we wrote when we were kids,” Beehler opens with a chuckle. 

“The people, they still want to hear it. We just did a festival in Poland and played the album in its entirety. In some ways I guess it feels like it was yesterday, but a lifetime has gone by and it’s pretty cool.”

Did Beehler and company recognize the shifting landscape of the Canadian rock and metal world as it was being forged by he and his peers in the 1980s?

“It was just like passing ships in the night,” he admits. 

“We didn’t realize this whole Canadian thing was going to be so big for many years to come. We were just another band out there trying to make it. Now when we play with Razor and Sacrifice, it’s this big Canadian package to the rest of the world and they eat it up. But back then, no, we didn’t really think of it that way.”

Unveiling the Wicked

And while seminal records like their lauded debut and subsequent followups Violence & Force and Long Live the Loud and Unveiling the Wicked are still seen as present day genre gems, the band is hard at work on their first studio album in 12 years, and first since the departure of founding member John Ricci.

“The reunion happened in 2014 and we went five years with John. And obviously when he left the band we just scrapped any material that we wrote. But there really wasn’t that much material to scrap to tell you the truth. The writing was really slow. But now, of course with Daniel we’re writing new material and working on it and eventually there’s going to be an album. Yeah, we’re really looking forward to it. It’s got to live up to those old albums. And I think it will.”

As for the present, after four-decades-plus of heavy metal dominance, Exciter finally are set to touch down on our shores, aiming to blow the roof off The Rock House in St. John’s in classic fashion. “We’re pumped up for it,” Beehler shared with genuine excitement. “To go to Newfoundland and bring Exciter there, it’s f***ing amazing man. We can’t wait. And yeah, it’s been all these years and we’ve never been there. It’s cool to play places that we’ve never played before. It’s awesome.”

Exciter take to The Rock House in St. John’s on July 23rd with special guests Vertebraeker and Grenadier. Tickets still available at Fred’s Records and the Fogtown Side Shop

After 15 years, the truck is back on the road! Heavy metal heavyweights reigning from the rugged shores of Newfoundland and Labrador, Bucket Truck are set to make their long-awaited reunion at the Iceberg Alley Performance Tent on June 16th. 

Out of the blue

“There was zero plans to reunite. It was nothing we were trying to do,” shared actor and founding member Mike Rowe. “It’s cool to have Matt (Wells) living in St John’s and me to be back here. I figured we’d probably do some kind of musical thing, but in the forward direction, not in the backwards direction. And then Matt sends me a text and is like, ‘you’ll never believe who just reached out to me.’”

As Wells, band frontman and former host on MTV and MuchMusic explained, the offer to open for Alexisonfire and The Dirty Nil under the famed Iceberg Tent came quite out of the blue. 

“So literally it was March 24th. I got a text at quarter to 11 at night from Iceberg Alley and I didn’t know who was it was, just a 709 number and it says, ‘Hey Matt, Shawn Basha here. I have a show for Iceberg Alley with Alexisonfiire and The Dirty Nil on June 16th. Bucket Truck should open.’ I was watching a basketball game, and I just put my head up, by myself, and honestly, the first thing out of my mouth was f**k me, because I knew immediately we were going to do it. But I also knew what that would entail of trying to make it happen.”

Original lineup

Reuniting the original lineup of Rowe, Wells, Chris Hanley, Mike Stewart, Jud Haynes and Mike Rizkalla would seem easier on paper than in practice. Stewart now calls Sweden home, while Rizkalla is based out of New York. Some serendipity was seemingly at play, this time out.

“And honestly, we had talked about it through the years. We haven’t played a show in 15 years and every year there would be a promoter or somebody would reach out and say, is there a show? Is the band still happening? Can you do a tour here or there? And we would always be like it’s just not going to happen for a million reasons, not the least of which is that we’re spread all over the world,” shared Wells candidly.

“But there was just something about this. (Mike) and I had talked about that if it was ever going to happen, if we were ever going to do this, it would have to be someone coming to us and saying, here’s this show, and all you really need to worry about is walking on stage and playing.”

A sweet proposal 

Bucket Truck, admittedly, had always taken a very hands on approach to their art, from promotion to management and marketing. Having hands off the wheel, backing one of Canada’s most established heavy acts no less, was a proposal too sweet to pass up. 

“When it was offered I said to Matt that it’s like getting asked to the graduation. Like, it’s just nice to be asked, even if we don’t do it. I’m glad somebody gives a s**t,” adds Rowe. 

“But then when we thought about it I’m like, ‘Well yeah, this is probably the only way I would do it and we would all feel good about it.’ Somebody obviously wants to see it. Bigger name on the bill, so there are definitely going to be some numbers there to see the night of music. Why not just show up and do it? It aligned pretty perfectly for if it was ever going to happen, how I would want it. You couldn’t say no to it.”

And so it was set, Bucket Truck, in its original form of Rowe, Wells, Hanley, Stewart, Haynes and Rizkalla, will perform for the first time in 15 years at Iceberg Alley. No pressure right?

“Bucket Truck is not the type of band that we can just go, ‘you got your songs learned? Let’s get up on stage!’ By the time we got to the last half of the catalog, those songs are really difficult. These aren’t like easy riffs. We’re not just playing three chords. If this was just like f***ing Ramones punk we’d be like, ‘Yes, let’s do it!’ But that’s not what this band is,” shared Wells honestly, adding that he’s “more nervous about this show than I ever was, only because we want to be better than we ever were.”

The Final throwdown?

Is this a one-off? The guys, smartly, remain non-committal. Never say never as the old adage goes, but if you’re down to rock with the Truck, June 16th is your ticket.

“Obviously we said to each other, ‘so are we going to do more?’ But we did come to the conclusion that let’s focus on this show. So for anybody who is like, ‘Oh, I’ll catch them on the next tour’ or whatever, we’re not planning for it, but I never say never, man,” says Wells. “Maybe if Iceberg Alley comes back at us when we’re all 65, I’d probably say yes too.”

But then, delivering a potential final throwdown to fans in St. John’s is the perfect bookend to this long-lasting and very sweet heavy metal love story.

“The fact that people care, it’s sort of hard to put into words. It’s all that excitement we talked about that we feel on our own. The fact that there’s people who maybe didn’t get to see the band before or it was a part of their journey of going to see local shows and now they’re reliving it, all that stuff just makes me smile, man. And I can’t even tell you how pumped I am to honestly just tear this stage apart in the name of all of those good vibes. Really. I can’t wait.”

‘If it scares you, try it’

Back to the pressure of delivering to the high-benchmark of the Bucket Truck standard of riffing, moshing excellence, and Rowe, quite sagely, has the closing remarks.

“The band sort of taught me that feeling and it’s done great things for me in my life, but when you’re afraid of it, that’s the thing you should probably do. If it scares you, go f****ng try it. And you know, I’ve done that. That brought me to really interesting places in my life and my art. I’ve swam with sharks. Me and Matt bungee jumped. Scary s**t, it makes you feel alive. So I, at least in a crazy way, can convince myself that the nervous energy is excitement.”

For tickets and more information on the Iceberg Alley Performance Tent visit icebergalleyconcerts.com