Dallas Green talks touring, coming home and Gord Downie

He’s not quite home, but it’s close enough for Dallas Green.

The St. Catharines native known as City and Colour makes a detour to Buffalo Sunday night to join The Deftones for Edgefest at Buffalo’s Canalside. It’s Green’s first local appearance since playing the Meridian Centre’s first concert in October, 2014.

It’s a night he recalls with pride and nostalgia.

“It was an honour, you know,” he says, on the line from Illinois where he played Lollapalooza in Chicago Thursday. “I’ve driven by that spot my whole life and there was nothing there but a parking lot. So to come back home and see that giant hockey arena there, and be asked to be the inaugural performance, it was an honour.

“It’s always nice to be recognized or at least help with something from your hometown. It just sort of filled my heart with joy to be able to do that.”

The sold-out, two-hour show in front of 5,000 fans was just the second event held at the $50 million arena in downtown St. Catharines, following an Ice Dogs game the week before. Green spoke about his career with Alexisonfire starting “just down the street,” and told the audience he was living proof “if you believe in something and try your hardest ... something good will happen.”

It was an emotional moment where his voice cracked, just a bit.

“Even when we were doing our sound check and it was empty, I was just standing there thinking ‘I could never have imagined this, walking through this parking lot numerous times when I was a kid.’”

Green released his fifth album as City and Colour last year, If I Should Go Before You, becoming his first number one album on Canadian iTunes and his third straight album to crack the Top 30 in the U.S. He has been touring virtually non-stop since its release, continuing until early October in the U.S.

Lollapalooza is another nostalgic gig for him: Green recalls attending the mega-concert’s early years while a teen in St. Catharines.

“Whenever it came near Toronto, yes,” he says. “I was pretty young when I first went, so it was one of my first experiences with a big outside music festival. I was just sort of taking it all in and getting to see a bunch of bands that I liked. Seeing the multiple stages all over the place and a massive group of people.”

But in addition to touring, there’s something else on Green’s mind these days: Gord Downie. Green was awakened by his tearful wife Leah with news of Downie’s terminal brain cancer. The Tragically Hip frontman sang on Green’s 2008 single Sleeping Sickness and appeared in the video.

Green attended the first show of the Hip’s presumably final tour June 22.

“It was a very emotional experience, for everybody,” he says. “Knowing him and knowing the band, I couldn’t help but think certain things while I’m watching it.”

While many are questioning how Downie can tour under such circumstances, Green fully, completely understands.

“It’s where he lives. When you’ve been doing it for as long as he has – even myself, I’ve been doing it for half the time (he has) – it’s what feels normal. It’s probably where he feels the most comfortable, to be honest.

“I think he wants to experience as much of it as he can before it’s taken away from him.”

Green still has plenty of family and friends in the area, but rarely has time to revisit Niagara at length. The grind of touring and recording can be relentless, he says, but 15 years after Alexisonfire first roared onto the Niagara scene, he’s still having fun.

“I never worked a day in my life. Except for when I worked at the Pen Centre!”