Band Of Skulls Play At New Moon Premiere Party

TORONTO — A drizzly November evening set the tone for an evening filled vampires, werewolves and hard rock at the gala screening for The Twilight Saga: New Moon at Toronto's Elgin & Winter Garden Theatre Thursday (Nov. 19) night.

Those lucky enough to attend the after-party were treated to a live performance by Band Of Skulls. The Southampton, England blues-rock trio have been turning heads worldwide this past year. And now that they have a song in one of the biggest blockbusters in pop culture, Band Of Skulls have even more to look forward to.

The band shared some reflections on their growing stardom before the screening, and talked about the song "Friends," which is featured on the New Moon soundtrack. "Friends," it turns out, is a leftover that found a happy home.

"We had extra time when we were finishing [Baby Darling Doll Face Honey], and we demoed any ideas that we had left and a couple of them didn't make it on the album. The song 'Friends' was one of them," said singer/guitarist Russell Marsden.

"Then we read in the L.A. Times that it was going to be in the film. We called our manager and we were like, 'Who are you sending our experiments to?' It was a good moment when we heard the news."

Drummer Matt Hayward said he finds it hard to believe how far the band have come since last year.

"It is a massive lifestyle change," he said. "I don't think we expected how quickly things progressed."

"We've been touring for the last four or five months now and we love it," the soul of the group, bassist Emma Richardson, humbly added. We're getting good at playing live."

Band Of Skulls' heavy tour schedule has solidified a sense of confidence within the group.

"[On tour] you gain experience and you get to know yourself as a musician and what you're capable of," said Marsden. "The music grows every night, and it changes and evolves and it's different from the record now. How we play our songs now I think will inforn how we write our next record."

Band Of Skulls strutted their rock star confidence on the red carpet, and shared the spotlight with some other celebrities. The event attracted mostly homegrown stars like cast members from Degrassi: The Next Generation, including Stefan Brogren ("Snake" Simpson), Shane Kippel (Gavin "Spinner" Mason) and Charlotte Arnold (Holly J. Sinclair).

Other appearances were made by Tre Armstrong (So You Think You Can Dance Canada) and Toronto-based pop/rock singer Fefe Dobson. A hardly recognizable and way-more-buff Robin Black looked smitten beside his partner while posing for pictures.

A cluster of Twi-hards stood closely together in the rain, hoping to get a peak of some New Moon stars. Disappointment settled in when news got out that the only two stars set to go to the premiere were Billy Burke (Bella Swan's dad, Charlie Swan) and Justin Chon (Bella's photographer friend, Eric Yorkie). Unfortunately, the New Moon premiere happened Thursday night as well, and Robert Pattinson (Edward Cullen), Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan) and Taylor Lautner (Jacob Black) chose Broadway.

Burke and Chon graciously made light of the fact that they were minor actors within the film, representing the Toronto screening. During a Q&A before the film, Chon told fans to anticipate more cafeteria scenes from him in the upcoming third film, Eclipse. Burke jokingly admitted he was thankful people have started watching his movies now that he stars in The Twilight Saga.

After the screening, crowds piled into the after-party to see Band Of Skulls. The band gave the crowd a small, yet healthy dose of what they had to offer. They stirred a second wave of energy into the crowd by starting off their set with their catchy first single, "I Know What I Am," followed by the hard guitar-driven "Death By Diamonds And Pearls."

The hypnotic effect of Richardson's bass line on "Patterns" was clearly felt by the crowd, and everything came together with "Friends." The band closed with "Impossible." Marsden had his turn to take centre stage with this song and he didn't disappoint.

Marsden is definitely accurate in saying the band's sound has evolved into something new. They truly are a band ready to take on the world.