Covet Thy Neighbor


Our Lady Peace to headline international "Summersault" Tour



Apparently the world does need another summer package tour. So, ignoring the pitiful returns from last summer's Lollapalooza and the one-and-done R.O.A.R. tour, Canadian demagogues Our Lady Peace are organizing an international festival, tentatively called "Summersault", with their sites set on sating fans in their home country and generating new ones in the U.S.

While last summer's border-crossing EdgeFest tour was chock full of popular Canadian bands like OLP, Tea Party, and I Mother Earth, the strategy for "Summersault" calls for OLP to headline at least four concerts in the eastern region of Canada, supported by five other modern rock acts who've achieved mass appeal in the U.S. or Great Britain but little north of the border. Then "Summersault" heads below the belt, to let an elite non-Canadian band headline the U.S. leg of the festival in just-south-of-the-border-cities like Seattle, Cleveland, Detroit, and Buffalo, with OLP to assuming a more supporting role. OLP manager Eric Lawrence has 20,000 to 25,000 seat venues in mind for the tour. In Lollapalooza and H.O.R.D.E. tradition, "Summersault" will feature a second stage for less-established artists.

"It puts Our Lady Peace in a good position because we can offer up the opportunity to any American or U.K. bands to play four shows in front of that many people," Lawrence says. "But, in turn, let's take this thing into America and, if you're further along in America than [OLP], that band can go on stage last." As of yet no bands have been contacted to appear on "Summersault", which will likely begin in July, but Lawrence's wish list includes bands like Green Day, Garbage, Foo Fighters, and the Verve.

In the U.S., Our Lady Peace's sophomore release, Clumsy, has just gone gold (500,000 copies sold) on the strength of the single "Superman's Dead" and the title track. Impressive, but in less-populated Canada, OLP is more popular than maple syrup, having sold nearly three-quarters of a million - amounting to seven times platinum on the conversion scale.

"We can do shows now and play to about 1,500 people a night [in the U.S.]," Lawrence says, "but if we're able to flip something and end up playing to 15,000 or 20,000 people, you can't lose."

By: Blair R. Fischer


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