Protest The Hero Preach Experience Over Inebriation

Protest The Hero have hit the road with fellow Canadians, Silverstein. They may be looking forward to broadening their horizons, but it seems the tour — which has the band touching down in cities across Canada and the U.S. — might not be what all their fans were hoping for.

"I think there's a portion of our audience that's a little bummed out that it's really a Silverstein tour, but I think another portion of our audience is just thrilled," says bassist Arif Mirabdolbaghi. "We're ready for a good time. We get along really well with the guys [in Silverstein], and they offered us this tour that really coincided well with the release of our new record."

The new record he speaks of is Fortress, the follow-up to 2005's Kezia, which arrives in stores via Underground Operations on Jan. 29. Kezia received a lot of attention for being dubbed a concept album, and some might think Fortress could fall into the same category, but it's not meant to be as cohesive as it sounds.

"Fortress is dramatically less of a fictionalization, but there's still an element of fiction involved," says Mirabdolbaghi. "I think it just had a lot to do with storytelling rather than it is itself telling a story.

"There are some songs that are contributing to a fiction from abstraction that we're talking about — particularly this one story of conquest and capture — yet there are other songs as well that are just attacking one issue and communicating one point; I'd say more of a traditional songwriting approach."

Protest The Hero might be broaching some important issues with their newest release, but they're definitely not trying to be the next Bono. They like the ideas of a different bunch of free-thinkers, however.

"We want to bring back the unordinary state of reality that was around just before the hippies came and made a trend of it," Mirabdolbaghi says. "We're not trying to start any kind of movement or anything, I'm just trying to say that I think it's the right time for a resurgence of experience over inebriation."

Here are the Canadian dates for Protest The Hero's tour with Silverstein, IllScarlett and The Devil Wears Prada:

Jan. 28 Vancouver, BC @ Croatian Cultural Centre
Jan. 30-31 Edmonton, AB @ Starlite Room
Feb. 1 Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall
Feb. 2 Saskatoon, SK @ The Odeon
Feb. 4 Winnipeg, MB @ The Garrick
Feb. 7 London, ON @ Cowboy's Ranch
Feb. 8 Toronto, ON @ Kool Haus
Feb. 9 Montreal, QC @ Club Soda
Feb. 10 Quebec City, QC @ Imperial De Quebec