Billy Talent
With special guests Rise Against, Anti-Flag & Moneen

Thursday, January 18th, 2007
Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, Victoria
Showtime: 7:00pm (Doors 6:00pm)

Billy Talent seemingly came out of nowhere with their debut album, but in reality the Toronto quartet had spent over a decade, since members met in high school, honing its rock ‘n’ roll skills. They were definitely ready when their 2001 EP Try Honesty, and then their first full-length, hit the shelves and created a wave that would carry them all over the world. Sharing stages with heroes the Buzzcocks and Jane’s Addiction, touring with Lollapalooza, the Warped Tour, and playing a gaggle of European showcase stops including the U.K.’s infamous Reading and Leeds festivals, Billy Talent toured incessantly on that first record, a melodic tsunami of fist-in-the-air rock n’ roll. “Best New Group”, “Group of the Year” and “Album of the Year” Juno trophies, “Best Video” and “Best Rock Video “MuchMusic awards, as well as a passionate following of fans at home and abroad followed.

Billy Talent II, the follow-up, entered the Canadian Sales Chart at #1 and the new single “Red Flag” is currently in the top ten on rock radio in Canada. On this album, the band maintains the elements that make them who they are – hard-hitting, hook-filled, tight arrangements with an edge – but with a more refined sense of purpose. The album seamlessly weaves such the issue-based songs with more personal tales, from friends falling victim to drug addiction in “Fallen Leaves,” to hipster snobbery in “Where is the Line?” to dealing with people who don’t stand by their convictions in “Covered in Cowardice” – the music sets the scene while the words tell the vivid stories. “I think this record is more focused for us as writers and people telling stories that are a bit more personal and revealing the side of us that we were more hesitant to reveal on the first record,” says D’Sa. Musically, the song “This Suffering” melds all the sounds and styles that fans were first introduced to on their first record. “I think it’s a good representation of the band and all the little things we do in our music,” says Gallant. Billy Talent have been blowing away thousands of fans nightly in Europe this fall and will bring their energetic live show across Canada this winter.

Since forming in 1999, Rise Against has become one of hottest punk bands in the world. A melodic hardcore quartet out of Chicago, the group released its fourth album, The Sufferer & the Witness, on Geffen this past summer. It reached #10 in the Billboard Top 200, and the single “Ready to Fall” made it to #13 on the U.S. modern rock chart. Rise Against has relentlessly toured Europe, U.S., Japan and Australia, and played the Reading and Leeds festivals in England as well as the Vans Warped Tour. With a solid punk foundation, and influenced by Bad Religion, Bad Brains and Minor Threat, Rise Against nevertheless eschews stylistic boundaries, and has recorded poppy songs and acoustic ballads as well scorching punk tunes.

For Blood and Empire is the latest album from Pennsylvania’s Anti-Flag. 2001’s Underground Network on Fat Wreck was the band’s breakout, while subsequent albums like Mobilize and The Terror State established Anti-Flag as one of the most outspoken, politically oriented punk groups on the scene. For Blood and Empire is the band’s statement about what it sees as the mishandling of the war on terrorism by the U.S. government.

“Aggressive melodic pop” is how Moneen likes to describe its music. But the description tells only half the story of this Toronto quartet’s impressive, complex and ultimately indescribable sound. The band’s latest, The Red Tree, follows its breakthrough album Are We Really Happy With Who We Are Right Now, a record that took the band to farflung regions and to sharing stages with acts like Muse and Taking Back Sunday. The Red Tree is more cohesive and less frenetic than previous albums, even as Moneen retains its commitment to mixing straightforward, hard-driving rock with ambient, artsy soundscapes for a progressive pop punk sound quite unlike anything else out there.

Check out Billy Talent live at the Save On Foods Memorial Centre on Thursday, January 18th with special guests Rise Against, Anti-Flag & Moneen.

Tickets:
$39.50, $24.50 (INCL. GST) + s/c + f.f.

Tickets on sale: Saturday, October 14th, 2006.  See www.selectyourtickets.com for ticket information.

Methods of Payment:
1) Cash
2) Debit
3) MasterCard
4) Visa

Random Line-up Policy:
- ½ hour before on-sale, numbers will be handed out to all individuals waiting to purchase tickets.
- 5 minutes before on-sale a number will be drawn. That is where the line-up will begin.
- Numbers preceding the number drawn will line up sequentially.
- Any patrons arriving after the draw will line up after the last ticket handed out.

Box Office:
Box Office Information

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With head office in Vancouver, RG Arenas is a division of RG Properties. RG Arenas manage and/or own facilities in Kelowna, Greater Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia

For more information contact:
Tom Billings
Public Relations - Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre
tom.billings@saveonfoodsmemorialcentre.com
Office: 250.220.2612 Cell: 250.516.7816