Hometown Tales with Insurrection

Insurrection

Today I'm talking to a bilingual band about their hometown.

Gatineau, Quebec's Insurrection is still riding high on the wave of their crushing album, Extraction.

Unlike most times when we hear the term bilingual in the USA, Insurrection is English and Spanish.

Older timers may recall when the Montreal Expos were in town and they sang that strange French and English version of O Canada.

Canada has those dual languages up there. Before you find out all about where they're from precisely, hit them up on FACEBOOK.

Now that you're internet friends with these French Canadian bashers, let's find out about French Canada.

1. St. Louis City is my hometown. I've lived here for most of my life in and around the city. Where are you from?

Most of the band is from Gatineau, Quebec except for the 2 Stefs (singer is from Jonquière, Quebec and drummer is from Kapuskasing, Ontario.

2.We have three things that don't really exist anywhere else: the slinger, the gooey butter cake, and toasted ravioli. Tell me about your hometown delicacy. 

I think I’ll have to be typical here and say poutine is pretty big in Gatineau. We have great craft breweries as well. 

What more can anyone need?

3. In St. Louis, though there have been others. Our biggest hometown team is the St. Louis Cardinals (formerly the St. Louis Perfectos, nee: the St. Louis Browns, not the AL team that moved to Baltimore.) There is nowhere you can go to escape it. I'm a hockey fan, not a baseball fan, so it's a bit weird to me. Tell me about your hometown's big team. 

3. We don’t really have big sports teams in Gatineau but we are literally 10 minutes walk from Ottawa which has the Redblacks football team and the Ottawa Senators. 

Hockey wise it’s pretty divided between Montreal Canadiens and Senators. The war lives on!

4. St. Louis isn't really known for any one type of music scene. The biggest acts I can think of to get out of here alive were Gravity Kills, Nelly and the St. Lunatics, and Sheryl Crow. There's always been a vibrant concert scene though. What about where you are? 

The metal scene is pretty well organized and very decent here. We have great bands coming out of our area like Fuck The Facts and Annihilator. 

We also have the Montebello Rockfest about 40 minutes drive away. Music wise it’s pretty diverse but there’s a lot of space for emerging bands.

5. 20 years ago, St. Louis had about 300 murders each year, floods, and all sorts of other fun things. You might have heard about us being named the Murder Capital of the USA. Nowadays, a lot here is 150. But there are lots of parts of the city that are returning to former glory. On the whole, St. Louis is a better place to live today than before. Is there any thing like that where you're from? 

It’s a pretty quiet place here. There’s crime here and there but nothing out of hand. Bar brawls I’d say are probably the most common way to keep the cops awake.

6. Are you still there? 

Went to the bathroom and got myself a beer but besides that I’m still here.