Line-up

Headliner
The Trews Last time in Barrie: 5 months ago

Venue

The Kee to Bala

Bala, ON, Canada

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Additional details

Doors open: 20:00

Concert in your area for Rock and Indie & Alt.

Find out more about Rock.

The Trews biography

Hailing from Nova Scotia, Canada, The Trews are a four-piece hard rock band who have forged a successful career lasting over a decade, releasing five studio albums in that time.

In their home country of Canada, The Trews have consistently released top ten-charting albums, also gaining several top ten singles in the Canadian Rock charts. With two Gold-certified records to their name, The Trews are one of the most successful Canadian hard rock bands. The band take influence from classic rock bands such as Led Zeppelin and The Allman Brothers Band, as well as more contemporary acts like Pearl Jam and U2.

The band formed in high school in 1997, featuring brothers Colin MacDonald (lead vocals/rhythm guitar) and John-Angus MacDonald (lead guitar/backing vocals), cousin Sean Dalton (drums) and friend Jack Syperek (bass). In 2002, they decided upon the name, The Trews, before then entering and winning southern Ontario’s 97.7 HTZ-FM’s annual talent contest. This success garnered the attention of Big Sugar singer, Gordon Johnson, who then offered to record and produce their self-titled debut EP.

Moving to Sony Music Canada, The Trews produced their debut album, “House of Ill Fame,” which found the band a significant audience, achieving Gold certification. The Trews then embarked on extensive tours, playing over 400 shows in the following years before returning to the studio. Their second record, “Den of Thieves” followed in 2005, also being certified Gold.

Four more albums followed, “No Time For Later” (2008), “Friends & Total Strangers” (2009), “Hope & Ruin” (2011) and their self-titled sixth album in 2014, all charting in the top ten of the Canadian charts. The band have toured internationally, supporting the likes of the Rolling Stones, KISS, Bruce Springsteen, Robert Plant and Guns ’N’ Roses.

Live reviews

After fifteen years together, it’s clear that The Trews really know how to make a rock hit. These are guys who took their time on their journey, not releasing their first single until 2002 despite playing together since 1997. This slow start is reflected in their music: this band knows their genre inside and out, and are totally at one with their sound. More than this, the guys are also totally at one with each other, which makes seeing these friends perform live a real pleasure. This band is always really excited to share their new material – and audiences at their gigs are always pumped to hear it – but the band isn’t afraid to include firm favourites such as What’s Fair Is Fair, Hold Me in Your Arms and Not Ready to Go in their sets. Hearing everyone sing along to these with the band is always so much fun, and you can tell all the guys of The Trews love it too. I don’t expect this band to slow down any time soon, and, to be honest, I wouldn’t want them to. Their following is strong for a reason: these guys are all about the music. If you like hard rock and you’ve enjoyed their music, you have to see them live. Every performance they have, they rock out like it’s their last.

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