Photo by Paris Visone
Godsmack will fire up the Canalta Centre on Monday, April 29, 2019. Fellow hard rockers Volbeat are also on the the bill.
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Godsmack, the multiplatinum four-time Grammy Award-nominated band, returns to Canada to turn up their signature high octane live show – along with Danish band Volbeat for the ultimate highly-energized hard rock double bill with special guests Stitched Up Heart. Godsmack and Volbeat – one night only in Medicine Hat April 29 at Canalta Centre.
“We’re excited to come. It’s been a while since we’ve been out to Canada,” said drummer Shannon Larkin, prior to kicking off the band’s co-headlining tour of the Great White North. Larkin’s previous collaborations include session and live work with Ugly Kid Joe, Candlebox, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Vanilla Ice and Ozzy Osbourne.
Related:Volbeat, Godsmack in top form, says guitarist ahead of Medicine Hat show
Sharing the stage with Volbeat in Canada is perfect, Larkin noted. “We used to have a tour manager and Sully and I have known him since back in the Pantera days,” he said.
“We were good friends and he was Godsmack’s tour manager for the longest time. We went to do a cycle and he went out with Volbeat. That’s how we met the band Volbeat a couple of years back. It turned out their record release correlated with our record release, so we reached out,” he added. Godsmack’s latest release is “When Legends Rise,” which spawned the hit “Bulletproof.”
Godsmack has landed seven No. 1 singles on both the Billboard Mainstream and Active Rock charts and earned 23 top 10 hits at Active Rock – the most of any act since February 1999. The band has also debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 three consecutive times and won “Rock Artist of the Year” at the Billboard Music Awards.
Godsmack is no stranger to life on the road, often touring years at a time – which has positioned the Boston-based band as one of rock’s most explosive live acts. This current tour has many smaller locales and venues scheduled, which is great news for rock and roll fans of all ages.
Larkin said the thing about B-markets is they are way better for bands than A-markets because B-markets typically don’t get all the shows. “They just have this better energy. This hunger for it.”
“There’s still that excitement and mystique in the air,” he said, as opposed to the bigger markets with more shows and/or live events at any given time.
Canada is great, Larkin said, because it reminds the band of European culture. “It comes back to the energy of the crowd. In America, it’s always like you have to work. In Europe or Canada, if I stand up and I put my hands up and start clapping my hands – the crowds, 99 per cent of the time – put their hands up and clap with me. Where in America, they don’t go for it. It seems European and Canadian crowds just seem to be more excited about live concerts.”
“I’m a proud American and I’m not disrespecting America – they’ve been fantastic to us. I’m just saying, Canada seems to be more excited,” he explained.
Larkin said right now the band is committed to breaking Europe and Volbeat might be able to help out in that respect. “We’ve always played over there, but we’ve never really had any success. It’s because it’s very expensive to tour over there. We have a big production. That’s why we’re not rich because we always take out all the bells and whistles. We like to put on a big show. We all grew up going to see bands like Priest and Kiss. All these bands had big shows we loved.”
Larkin added the band has started a three-tier plan for touring Europe, with one stint already under their belt. “We are going to tour Europe three times on this cycle.”
“We went over there and did small places. Next up is festivals in Europe,” he said. Touring will also include North America once again in July and August, a possible tour of South America and Mexico in October and November, back to Europe in February and March, back to North America in April and May and an end to the current tour cycle in the summer of 2020.
“The new record has given us this whole new outlook on the band, as we get into our twilight years. We all turned 50. We are not the young, angry, and full of piss and vinegar band we used to be. We are trying to just work our asses off and have a lot of fun and spread the word,” Larkin said.
Medicine Hat’s show at the Canalta Centre kicks off at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets available at ticketmaster.ca or at the Canalta Centre Box Office.
