Winnipeg's Inward Eye to open for the Who

Winnipeg trio Inward Eye have scored a return engagement with the Who.

Comprised ofthe Erickson brothers drummer Anders, 21, guitarist Kyle, 23, and singer/bassist Dave, 24 Inward Eye are to open for the British rock legends on an eight-city North American tour that starts this October.

For an indie band that has yet to release its debut disc, it's a heady feeling to share the bill with Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey.

"It's amazing because they've been such a big influence ever since we grew up," Anders Erickson said from Winnipeg.

"It's kind of too good to be true. I was like a little giddy kid at Christmas when I heard that we got to do this tour."

Inward Eye first opened for the Who last year at shows in Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton.

Erickson said that gave the band a taste of the high life.

"We're used to doing little pub shows, running in, trying to get sound ready, but this was really easy. We got treated super-nice," he said.

It was also a chance to hang out backstage with Townshend's younger brother Simon, who was on rhythm guitar, and Ringo Starr's drummer son Zak Starkey.

"Daltry and Townshend, they don't actually interact much because they've been there and done that, so they kind of get driven to the stage, they do their show and they kind of get driven away," he said.

The brothers were signed by J Records in the United States and SonyBMG in Canada three years ago, but have found out that getting signed is not the same as getting an album cut.

Though they've been writing new material and creating demos, they say the record industry staff they deal with has changed so often it's not been possible to create an album.

The Who tour kicks off Oct. 21 in Detroit and is followed by a string of shows in the northeast U.S. The only Canadian date scheduled is in Hamilton on Oct. 22.