54-40 bassist Brad Merritt hopes everything goes off as well for his band at this year's Stampede as it did at last year's show.

Except for the TAC Team.

Last summer, Merritt, 37, and his bandmates performed on the Coca-Cola Stage to a crowd of about 10,000; a record for the open-air venue.

During the performance, 54-40 noticed the TAC team deployed on the roof of the Round-up Centre. The experience, Merritt says, was a little unnerving.

"It just real weird having (the police unit) up there looking down on us," Merritt recalls.

"I really don't know what we're in for this time but I'm sure it will be a whole lot of fun and hopefully (the police) won't be out in the crowd and up on rooftops with guns like they were last time."

The band performs a 90-minute set tonight at 8 p.m. on the Coca-Cola Stage.

Last month, 54-40 released The Sound of Truth, a new CD that compiles an album and EP the group released in the mid-'80s on the defunct Mo-Da-Mu independent label. It's the first time the music has appeared on CD.

"I don't think that it's our own nostalgia (trip). We think it stands on its own merits. I just think it's kind of interesting to the 54-40 fan -- and we have a few hardcore fans -- just to find out what we sounded like in our early stages; in a much less-refined state. A state that was only influenced by what it is we wanted and were capable of putting down on tape. I think it's valid for those reasons."

Merritt says his band has begun writing songs for its next studio album, due for release in October. Is there a new sound the band is reaching for?

"There is," says Merritt.

"For lack of a better term, we're calling it rock and roll as opposed to rock," he says, chuckling.

"It may have a little more movement in the rhythm section. Our working title right now is Heavy Mellow.

"That gives us the licence to do anything we could possibly want to do. That's the way we like it these days and I think we sort of earned that. All we're trying to do is write good songs and make interesting records and let the chips fall where they may. We're just sort of following our bliss."

Ditto for the Stampede.

"Our concern when we took this show was how would we top what we did last year. In the end, we just thought: Why worry about it? Just go out there and play the show. We had so much fun last time, we decided we'd just try it again."

Minus the police, hopefully.