Vertical Horizon Survive EdgeFest And Now Sell-Out Shows

It's been less than a year since Vertical Horizon played at EdgeFest and was reviewed as one of the worst bands on the bill.

They have overcome bad press and managed to make their Canadian comeback, playing to a sold out audience at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto last night, with Starling as their opening act.

"Well I think its all relative. If you say that the response wasn't that strong for us, you'd have to realize where we come from," Matt Scannell, lead singer and guitarist explains. "At the time we were here, it was Canada's first introduction to us. Meeting someone for the first time, you're not going to go up to them [with] a great big bear hug and kiss them all over their face. We didn't get that many kisses, at least we got a lot of warm hand shakes."

Although reviewers weren't impressed with Vertical Horizon's performance at EdgeFest, the band felt that the tour was a great experience.

"Well, I'd say that Canada's a very, very big country because we drove every inch of it. It was really cool to be up here to put on all those shows. There were great bands on the bill. It was fantastic. I loved hearing Big Wreck every night. Finger Eleven were really good. We had a great time meeting a whole bunch of new bands and the people up here in Canada were very cool to us and made us feel very welcomed, so it was a wonderful introduction," Scannell says.

So what has really changed since EdgeFest? They released their major label debut album, Everything You Want, in 1999 through RCA/BMG, and have found success with the songs "Everything You Want" and "We Are."

"That's just a product of growing. In the United States we didn't just start playing to five thousand people, we had to grow up to that, so that's what were doing now," Scannell says.

The band has started to concentrate on touring and working on new material as much as possible.

"Mostly it's just touring. Lots of shows promoting the record, getting it out to as many people as we can, always writing songs so there's sort of [a] stockpile for the next record, whenever that might happen."