It’s been five years since indie rockers Wintersleep have been onstage together in Halifax. That hiatus ends May 11, when the JUNO award winners behind “Weighty Ghost” and “Amerika” take to the stage at the Marquee Ballroom. The band that got their start in Halifax in the early 2000s—playing the likes of the Seahorse Tavern before moving to Montreal, making it big-time on late-night television and moving back to Nova Scotia again—will play a hometown show for the first time since Mar. 30, 2019. (At the time, they were promoting the release of their seventh album, In the Land Of.)
The venue holds its own meaning for the band: Right next to the Marquee (in the Seahorse), Wintersleep played one of its first shows during 2003’s Halifax Pop Explosion.
“It was awesome,” lead singer Paul Murphy told The Coast in November. “It was after our first record [Wintersleep] came out, and it was one of those shows… it felt exciting to play in front of a full room.”
The band that once opened for Paul McCartney at the Halifax Common hasn’t announced any new projects since In the Land Of, but Murphy, for one, has been keeping busy—last fall, he released his second album under the moniker POSTDATA. The music video for his single “Try” is in the running for a 2024 East Coast Music Award.
Wintersleep’s reunion isn’t the only one of the Marquee show, either: Yarmouth-formed heavy metal band Burnt Black (brothers Brian and Adam Borcherdt, bassist Marcus Webster and drummer Neil MacKenzie) is getting back together after its own five-year hiatus and will perform an opening set.
Tickets for the May 11 show are $42 apiece. They go on sale on Thursday, Jan. 25.
