Deep in the heart of Lincoln lies a quaint bar The Rogue Saint, which this week hosted international band Coming Out Swinging and their support act Montrose.
The band from Canada came to the UK a few weeks ago to tour the country. Lincoln was Thursday night’s destination.
Support act Montrose are from Bristol and joined the band for the tour which drew to a close this Friday in Stockton.
Catherine Talbot spoke exclusively to the bands to talk music, tour adventures and what it’s like to be in the UK.
The band started making music when they were in high school at age sixteen. When they left, the high school band decided they were on to something good.
Shane Tasler is originally from the UK but moved to Canada in 2003, he shared why he loves music: “I’ve always been super into music in my aspects. I love the way our music reaches people and they relate to it. It’s super powerful and even to be half way across the world right now and have our music impact people is quite cool.”
Nic Sgaggi is also in the band, he says; “I’ve loved music all my life. It’s my passion, my one passion. That’s why I wanted to move forward with the band and do an international tour, to see where it took us.”
After organising the tour themselves, they wanted a UK band to tour with. That’s where Montrose came in. They’ve visited all over the UK on the tour, starting in Swansea and even played to their home crowd in Bristol.
“We had an unfortunate event happen that the drummer we were going to play with dropped out. When we landed in Manchester last week we had a message from him that he couldn’t play the tour,” Shane revealed. But within 3 hours, Jake from Montrose had learnt the entire set and has been since stepping in for the length of the tour.
The bands have become super close during the last week or so. Jason Bishop, vocalist for Montrose, told The Linc: “A week on tour is a really long time to get to know each other. We’re together every hour and we live together. We were really worried that we wouldn’t get on but it’s gone really well.”
It’s clear that the two bands have loved spending time with each other and have also become big fans of each other’s music. During the set in Lincoln, they were up dancing and singing along to each other’s sets. “My favourite moment was watching Montrose play in their home town. They went on stage and stole the show. It was so cool watching them play in front of their home fans.”
Being from Canada, Coming Out Swinging had a lot to encounter in the UK. Their train to Swansea was delayed when it had to stop because of a horse. They also filmed an acoustic set on a shed in the countryside and tried traditional fish and chips. It seemed that the UK provided what they wanted, a place to play their music and have fun with new friends.
To listen to music from the bands, you can find them on Bandcamp: https://comingoutswinging.bandcamp.com/ and https://montroseofficial.bandcamp.com/