It’s time to send off 2019, and Trooper is going to send it off with a bang. The Canadian rock institution is going to be at the Painted Hand Casino on Dec. 31 for a New Year’s Eve show.
Lead singer and founding member Ra McGuire said that they’re excited to get back on stage after a couple months off.
“We’ll be excited to play. Our last show was in London, Ontario back in September, so we’ll be full of first night energy.”
He’s also excited about getting to a show in Yorkton.
“Smaller town shows are more intimate, and consequently more fun.”
It’s the end of the year, and that means people want to party, and McGuire said they want to make it a good one.
“The crowd is always the main focus of our attention. We look forward to walking onto the stage and seeing what kind of party we’ve been invited to!”
The list of hits is a long one, with songs like Raise a Little Hell and The Boys in the Bright White Sports Car. McGuire said they didn’t realize they were going to be part of the Canadian rock canon when they wrote them.
“We never had any expectations about our future career when we were coming up. We just wrote the songs and did the tours and kept our fingers crossed. Nowadays, those hit songs have turned into our tickets to the best party in town.”
The band has been going for about 45 years, and has recently been recognized with honours like lifetime achievement awards. McGuire said that he’s honored by the recognition from peers, but it’s really the fan support that the band feels is most important.
“I’m not sure why we’ve lasted 45 years! I guess, from our side, it’s the fact that it’s still fun and people still pay us to do it - from your side, I’m guessing it’s the big collection of well-known songs and our reputation for still being able to rock the joint.”
Since this show is their last of 2019, what is Trooper looking forward to 2020?
“We’re all looking forward to the many shows we’ll play across the country in 2020. Like every year, all our shows are completely different from one another, but all of them are fun, and a big rush, for us.”
Keep track of Trooper at www.trooper.com, through Facebook at facebook.com/trooperband, through Twitter at twitter.com/trooper and through Instagram at instagram.com/trooper.
“Our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram bring us a lot closer to the folks that support us. It’s a lot of fun for us to interact there,” said McGuire.
