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Acres of Lions returns to Nelson's The Royal

Victoria-based band Acres of Lions will be returning to Nelson on September 6 to play The Royal.
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Acres of Lions will be returning to Nelson to play The Royal on September 6.

Dan Ball — Acres of Lions’ bass player — grew up in Nelson — and Geoff Kalesnikoff — one of the guitarists and vocalists — grew up near Castlegar.

Before Ball and Kalesnikoff created Acres of Lions, they were in a local band called Accident Scene.

“They were in Nelson for a couple years doing that,” said guitarist, vocalist and pianist Tyson Yerex. “The band broke up and they decided to move to Victoria. I had known their previous band when I was in my old band so we just connected and started playing shows. We picked up our drummer Lewis Carter, who grew up in Victoria and that became the band.”

While the band was forming its sound and creating demo tracks, they were also coming up with their name.

Yerex isn’t entirely sure where it came from but one discussion he remembers having was focused on Ball’s beard.

“Our dream when we were joking about the band before it even started was wouldn’t it be amazing if we created a Grateful Dead kind of following where everyone, even the women, had giant fake beards and would come to our shows and we’d be playing at the Gorge and we’d see acres of lions? That’s when we’d know we’d finally made it,” said Yerex. “That’s the dream off in the horizon that we’re sort of working towards.”

Acres of Lions plays at The Royal on September 6. Tickets are $10 at the door and online at liveattheroyal.com. Doors open at 7 p.m.