WHEN Ian Nichols, Brock Tinsley, Kenny Saunders and Tim Kealey were at school they were probably the least likely group of friends to form a band.

The Canadians were into comic books, trading cards and 8-bit games.

But Double Experience have now brought their love of ‘nerd’ culture all over the world after performing more than 500 shows across 100,000 miles.

The quartet, who grew up in Ottawa, pack their rock songs full of references to comics, games and TV shows and are inspired musically by Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters and He Is Legend.

They are playing at the Dog House in Buttermarket Street, Warrington, on Tuesday, August 19, as part of their third tour of the UK.

Guitarist Brock said: “Not only have we actually played in video game stores and museums as a full band but we’ve snuck in several themes from TV shows depending on if we’ve met any fellow fans of the particular show that night.

“Our live show is a sum of little ice breakers like that which change from show to show to keep things fresh for everybody.

“As the guitarist, I also mess with the sounds and tones to emulate some 8-bit noises in our songs.

”Our band binge watches many TV series and we’ll often incorporate themes or quotes into our music.

“It all makes for a fun style of prog rock without all the brooding seriousness. As an example, our song ‘Destiny Chile’ from our latest album was written after cramming all seasons of Lost!”

It was not long ago that being labelled as a ‘nerd’ was something people would dread.

But now game franchises and comic book films are more popular and lucrative than ever and ‘nerd’ culture is celebrated at the likes of Comic Con and Video Games Live.

Brock reckons the turning point was the fragmentation of the media in the mid 2000s.

He added: “It changed my mind about what and how you could discover entertainment and how much you could find. Finding out you aren’t alone in your fanaticism is also extremely liberating.”

Double Experience are back on the road for ‘The Live Action Rock Performance Tour’ to promote their new album, 721835.

The album name is a nerdy reference in itself as it is ‘leet speak’ for Tribes. ‘Leet speak’ is a code, first used by hackers, where letters are often replaced by numbers.

Brock said: “Ian and I originally wanted to write a concept album where a space cowboy is taxed with eradicating a planet filled with different tribes of cyborgs.

“It was all going to be a metaphor for rock music versus electronic dance music and pop genres.

“I assumed nobody was interested in hearing that story considering how ridiculous it sounded, so we just went for the straight ahead approach.”