A Q&A with The Blue Stones ahead of Kelowna show

The Kelowna stop on the Glory Tour, featuring The Glorious Sons, is nearly upon us.

The gig is presented by 104.7 The LIZARD, and happens at Prospera Place Saturday, Nov. 11.

Blues rock duo The Blue Stones – Tarek Jafar and Justin Tessier – are special guests on the bill. They, like the Glorious Sons, are from Ontario.

Here’s a chat Roach, from 104.7 The LIZARD, had with Tarek at Halloween – matching Ted Lasso mustache and track suit n’ all!

It has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Roach: You guys must be excited to be back in Kelowna again?

Tarek: This will be our third time here. Our last visit was last year for Denim on the Diamond, and it was beautiful. We did the wine country visit, we did some hiking, and it’s so beautiful. Great food and wine.

But a few years before COVID, we did our own independent tour at a really small bar, which I believe has now turned into a gastro bar. We were on this tiny 2 x 2 stage under a stairwell. We’re a duo so we can work things out.

Roach: You’ve now launched your third album Pretty Monster. How have you grown since the years of playing under a staircase?

Tarek: We’ve definitely grown. We haven’t shied away from adding more instrumentation and taking more chances live, I think with certain electronic aspects of our music. And I just feel like the show is bigger overall. I do appreciate we’re a raw two-piece on stage – what you see is what you get - but even the transition from [second album] Hidden Gems to Pretty Monster, we’ve made our show like a concert. It’s something that you come see and it’s an experience.

Roach: Obviously you’re coming with the Glorious Sons. You guys are from Windsor and Glorious Sons from Kingston, so how did the West and East meet up and work out for this tour?

Tarek: Justin [Tessier] moved to Kingston seven years ago so he’s built a nice community around him there including with the Glorious Sons guys. They see each other all the time, obviously, we respect each others’ music, and they’re incredible guys. We’ve built a nice relationship and what tipped the scales was Justin being in that Kingston community and hook up over the last few years. So, that’s really kind of pushed us over the finish line with this.

We actually were in a battle of the bands with The Glorious Sons back in 2011, I think, and we made the final against each other.

Roach: Who won?

Tarek : The Glorious Sons. They always have that on us!

Roach: What can fans expect from the concert?

Tarek: It’s going to be an electrifying show, electrifying. With us and them it might be the biggest rock show fans have seen this year. I just say that because I know how much we want to perform well on this tour, and I can only image the Glorious Sons guys coming off an album release want to blow the roof off the place as well.