Toronto rocker DANKO JONES recently launched a column at Canada's Huffington Post. Following is an excerpt from his latest article:

"The goal of every band in every local music scene is to eventually sprout wings big enough to fly the coop and tour the world. The inevitable fallout is a natural disconnect from the scene that spawned you when you return with heightened prodigal son expectations. Our band began touring across the Atlantic over a decade ago, and today, trips back home are sometimes more of a visit than a return. This has led me to have gradually grown unfamiliar with my hometown.

The Soundwave Festival is the biggest festival in Australia, traveling all over the continent mid-February for two weeks (February 19 to March 3). Bands on the bill are grouped together on airplanes, shuttles, hotels and hangouts are almost forced upon you. Even though hanging out isn't exactly my favourite pastime, Soundwave had me giddy like a 12 year-old school girl when I saw this year's impeccable 2013 line-up.

Also, this year's Soundwave line-up had a lopsided dose of bands from Toronto and I knew I'd come face to face with other Torontonians. Despite our shared hometown and mutual friends, I was nervous that I'd have nothing to say to them past a "hello" and once again get tagged as "the asshole in that band."

Strangely, I've found myself in this position on more than one occasion. It's how I became friends with Damian Abraham of FUCKED UP when we hung out for a night in Holland at the Lowlands Festival, never before meeting each other in Toronto. I was convinced he hated our band, but nevertheless was enamored with his. Before I had a chance to head out to their stage to watch them play, he was already introducing himself to me and immediately assuaged any uneasiness I had.

Again in Germany, a year or two later, when our band played with ALEXISONFIRE at another festival, I hung out with guitarist Wade MacNeil (now of GALLOWS). I've since become good friends with these gentlemen and it's all through the magic circumstance of being Canadians abroad starved for camaraderie. Knowing Fucked Up and Gallows were going to be on Soundwave put me at ease.

Did Soundwave's exemplary treatment and organization help? Or the beautiful +30 degree February weather beating down on a bunch of Canadians that had just come from snow and ice? Or was it the laudable assembly of bands that put everyone in a mood to mingle, including, of all people... me? I'm not sure, but I walked away from Soundwave with a bunch of incredible memories and a list of new friends from my hometown all acquired between Melbourne and Perth.

To Fucked Up, BILLY TALENT, CANCER BATS and SUM 41, you are an upstanding group of people. Good hangs, gentlemen. Let's continue to hang when we're somewhere between Bloor & Yonge and King & Front.

To the Soundwave Festival, thank you for the opportunity to play your beautiful country. I had one of the best times of my life, playing some of the funnest shows ever. And thanks for giving me the opportunity to meet a bunch of Torontonians.

Check out the complete article here.

On March 6th, Danko Jones (the band) hit the road supporting VOLBEAT in North America. The tour wraps up in Philadelphia, PA on April 11th, and immediately after that the band will do two Florida shows (**) at the Earthday Birthday (Orlando) and the Fort Rock Festival (Ft. Myers) on April 13th and 14th respectively.

Ticket links can be found at this location.

The band's schedule is now as follows:

March

25 - Prince George, BC - CN Centre
27 - Dawson Creek, BC - EnCana Events Centre
28 - Edmonton, AB - Shaw Conference Centre
29 - Medicine Hat, AB - Cypress Center
30 - Regina, SA - Brandt Centre

April

1 - Saskatoon, SA - Credit Union Center
2 - Winnipeg, MB - MTS Centre
3 - Minneapolis, MN - Mill City Nights
5 - Chicago, IL - Aragon Ballroom
6 - Ft. Wayne, IN - Piere's
7 - Toronto, ON - Sound Academy
9 - New York, NY - Best Buy Theatre
10 - Baltimore, MD - Rams Head
11 - Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero
13 - Orlando, FL - Earthday Birthday **
14 - Ft. Myers, FL - Fort Rock Festival **

The video for the first single from Danko Jones' new album Rock And Roll Is Black And Blue, ‘Just A Beautiful Day’, was directed by the Diamond Bros and filmed in New York City in September 2012. It can be seen below: