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While relaxing backstage, one of the guys turned to singer Marty Ballentyne and said, "Hey, are you guys all native?"
Why, yes, he replied: native, aboriginal, Indian, of the First Nations persuasion. We're from La Ronge, Sask. You wanna to make something out of it?
No, he didn't say that. It's just that no one had noticed before - and that's fine with Breach of Trust, which plays hard rock in the manner of Creed at Red's tonight, opening for Finger Eleven.
"Being Indian is not a prerequisite for our band - and that's how we feel about the music, too," Ballentyne says during a phone interview from the green room at the Mike Bullard Show. "When people discover it, good for them. But you don't need to know that we're Indians to dig what we're doing.
"When I listen to music, I listen because it's good. There's only two kinds of music in the world: Good music and bad music. Everybody's definition of those things is different and that's why you've got so many different kinds of music in the world."
The band also has no problem embracing and celebrating its own heritage. It's just that when they play any event drawn along those cultural lines - the recent Indian Summer Music Festival, say - Breach of Trust sticks out like a sore thumb. Here's the bill: Folk singer, pow-wow drums, metal band, you see the problem. It's safe to say that this is the heaviest band to emerge from La Ronge in a long time, if not ever. Plus, the media can't stop asking about what it means to be an Indian hard rock band - and darn it, The Edmonton Sun won't be left out.
"Everybody singles us out," Ballentyne says. "If during the course of our career, we could bring an awareness of what it is to be who we are in the same way I'm interested in the world beyond my front door, then I would feel good that we did that.
"This tour with Finger Eleven has been a Godsend for us. It's the first time we've had a protracted series of shows that were about the kind of music that we play, rather than who we are. And that's really I think where the future of this band is."
You could argue that being aboriginal gives these musicians a unique perspective on heavy metal music, but while you may want to read meaning into the band's new album, Songs for Dying Nations, its themes are universal, Ballentyne says.
Breach of Trust has been kicking around since 1994. After honing its sound and strengthening its fan base around Canada, EMI took notice and signed them up in April. La Ronge isn't Toronto in terms of music industry, Ballentyne points out, so at first the band wasn't even interested - or expecting - to attract major label attention.
"It was never something we were counting on," he says. "We'd already made the record we wanted to make. Working with EMI means we just have a bigger team of people working towards the same goal."
Tickets to Finger Eleven, with Breach of Trust and Slurpy Mundae, are $22.50, at Ticketmaster or at the door.