By Nathan Cox for the Woodstock Sentinel-Review, originally published March 11, 2011. 

Canadian rock legends Helix are finally returning to Woodstock. Best known for hits such as "Rock You" and "Heavy Metal Love," Helix takes the stage Saturday, March 12, at the Oxford Auditorium, entertaining fans with a set that includes all of their classics.      With a history that spans almost three decades, Helix is still going strong. A new acoustic album was released last November, and a greatest hits compilation of the band's best songs of the new millennium will be released later this year.      On top of that, the band still tours, with the current lineup consisting of lead vocalist Brian Vollmer and three of the original band members: drummer Fritz Hinz, guitar player Brent Doerner and bassist Daryl Gray. They are joined by guitarist Kaleb Duck.      Helix is also in the process of putting together a pilot for a reality show called "Vagabond Bones".      "I get asked all the time, 'What is going to make your reality show different," Vollmer says. "But really it does boil down to the characters in the band. The show focuses on the members of the band and our travels across this great country of ours and beyond. Along the way we disperse a little bit of wisdom, and sometimes some stupidity."      Despite the band's success and longevity, it hasn't always been easy. The group formed in Kitchener in 1974 to participate in a battle of the bands competition. Helix won the competition and started touring. Vollmer recalls the group's early days.      "We basically bombed everywhere we played until we got a manager by the name of William Seip. He put us on the Northern Ontario B-circuit, so we stayed in some of the worst places you could ever want to stay in."      However, Vollmer sees those days as an important learning experience. "We had to go out and earn our spurs. I feel sorry for new bands nowadays, because there's no place, really, to go out and develop themselves."      "When we started, we went out on the circuit and you played six to seven nights per week, and you had to be better than the other band out there or you just didn't eat. So we got good fast. It was a great training ground for bands; it was one hell of a life to be a rock and roll gypsy."