In the final part of our exclusive look into Tired Lion’s gigantic UK and European tour, we head into the final week of their overseas trip. By this time, sleep derivation was starting to kick in and all manners of lunacy was starting to take hold, which makes for some real tour highlights. But as soon as the delirium sets in, the bittersweet feeling of the tour ending also finds its way into focus. Head on in for the experience.
WEEK 4: ETHAN’S PERSPECTIVE
The last string of headline UK Shows…
July 11th – The Bodega, Nottingham
Bodega was a cool venue with a sweet vibe. When we arrived there was a beach ball in the venue so we played a form of hackey sack with it, while we waited for the sound guy to check the lines etc. My obsession with the Terminator 2 theme song was getting out of control, I was blaring it through my laptop speakers to annoy everyone but I think it was getting a bit too much, to the point where I’d put it on and walk around like a robot. You do strange things when you deprived of sleep. The venue gave us the ingredients to make sandwiches so we skipped dinner and just had heaps of sandwiches between us. We played our set which went well but we didn’t hang around for very long as we had an early start the next day. We did walk around after the show though and got some desert from McDonalds which is always a good way to end your night.
July 12th – Nice N Sleazy, Glasgow
This was one of the longer drives we had to do and I think it was about 6 hours long. Sophie read Goosebumps books, Matt watched Scrubs, Nick played his DS and Ethan started making his way through the Blade trilogy. We arrived at our accommodation only to be told they had accidentally doubled booked us so we didn’t have a room. After a long drive that is the last thing you want to hear so we jumped online to try find another room, which was a bit harder than usual because there was some golf tournament on so everywhere was all booked up, but we finally found a place to stay. We headed to soundcheck and met the promoter who supplied us with sandwich stuff and then bought us some Scottish treats like tea cakes and Iron Bru. The sound guy told us how Iron Bru came about and the story was pretty cool and interesting. The show was pretty cool, we had some friends we made at 2000 Trees come and watch us so we hung with them and it was a great vibe.
5 SHOWS TO GO…
5 shows left. Here is a poem Sophie wrote.
I FEEL LIKE THE CRUMBLED GREEN MOULD THAT’S GROWING ON THE SIDE OF MY HOTEL WINDOW.
LIKE A THIN T-SHIRT THAT’S BEEN HUNG OUT IN THE RAIN FOR DAYS, OR EVEN THAT DOOR THAT JUST WON’T BUDGE.
I’M THE COLD SANDWICH ON THE RIDER NO ONE WANTS TO EAT.
I’M AN ALIEN.
A PEST WHO’S STARVING FOR ATTENTION FROM MY LOVED ONES BUT THEY’RE DEEP ASLEEP WITHIN THEIR DREAMS.
UNSATISFIED. I’M SATISFACTORY – AGAIN. I’VE FORGOTTEN WHO I AM.
I’M THE BUZZING IN YOUR EARS AND THE SAND BENEATH YOUR SHEETS.
I’M THE FURRY FEELING ON YOUR TEETH AND THE LAZINESS ON YOUR BREATH.
I WONDER WHO I’LL BE TOMORROW…?
July 13th – Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham
This was one of the smaller venues that we played which was cool, not having to rely on doing much tweaking with fold backs etc as the sound on-stage was already loud enough. We entered the green room and as usual, we saw an array of sandwich making things. I think we had been living on sandwiches for the past week or so, there is only so much you can do with cheese and ham! The support band Dolomite Minor came and hung with us and we just spoke about music and the scene and how its different. They are awesome dudes so we were really excited to see them play. They had such a cool vibe, heavy guitars with lovely melodic vocals, the riffs hit hard and they just had this cool vibe about them. I really enjoyed watching their set. We were pleasantly surprised by our new friends Milk Teeth who came to the show and watched us play, we met them at 2000 Trees and it was really lovely of them to come to the show. The vibe in the room was really great when we played and was super fun on-stage. Once again it was a quick load out and back to the accommodation for sleep.
July 14th – Lexington, London
We ended up at the wrong accommodation so had to go straight to the venue for sound check. We got to the venue and we were presented with 2 flights of stairs. We instantly sighed but got to work getting the gear in the venue. We met the sound guy who looked like the lead singer of Sum 41. He was pretty funny but he had a great vibe. We hung out more with Dolomite Minor and spoke about life and then had to head to do some photo’s with this rad photographer called James. We went for a walk around the venue and found some cool places to get some flicks. The whole time he reminded me of someone but I couldn’t put my finger on it, then it hit me! He reminded me of the singer from FIDLAR, I dunno what it was about London but everyone just seemed to remind me of a famous lead singer.
Dolomite Minor killed it once again with a great set and got me super pumped to play. The venue was really packed and it was an incredible turnout which you really don’t expect when you’re so far away and it’s your first trip to these places. It spun me out that people in the audience knew the lyrics to our songs there is no way of describing how that makes you feel, your first thought is like ‘what the f##k, how do these people know this stuff?’ After the show we hung with the people who came out to see us, it was really pleasant. It came time for load out and some lads where smoking a bit of the devils lettuce at the top of the stairs. So to make it easier every trip down the stairs with gear, Ethan would have a drag to ease the massive flight of stairs.
July 15th – Gullivers, Manchester
We got to Gullivers, once again running too late to check in before sound check so it was straight to the venue. We were treated by another staircase to load gear up and more sandwiches in the green room. We hung around the venue and did an interview [you can find this here] while we waited. The one thing that constantly weirds you out is that the sun stays up until like 10pm so you’re kind of thinking, it’s a lot earlier than what it actually is. We played and had to get out quick as we had to drive for 2 hours to our accommodation and had to be there before check in closed.
July 16th – Truck Festival, United Kingdom
On the way to this festival, I was so stoked to see that Spring King were on the line-up as was Rat Boy. 2 bands I really wanted to see. The festival looked so beautiful with the hills surrounding you and the amazing green grass. We hung out for a bit in our barn-like green room, before we headed out and went for a wander. The vibe of the festival was really lovely to be around, it was all ages and seemed very family-friendly. Once again we were stoked on the turn out and people really enjoyed our vibe. They sang along and made us feel welcome. One girl shouted out to Matt “oi Robert Smith”, Matt was pretty stoked with that. After the set, we went for another wander to get some food and watched Rat Boy. Another girl approached Matt and asked for a photo and then said “it’s because you look like Robert Smith”. We watched Rat Boy, who are really rad, they have so much energy and really know how to get a crowd going. We hung around for Spring King as they are one of Ethan’s favourite bands at the moment, they amazed me with the vibe and they sounded great. They really thanked the audience for being there with them and it was really genuine, they were stoked to share the party with the audience.
July 17th – Latitude Festival, United Kingdom
This was the last stop of the tour so everyone was feeling a bit sad. Once again another festival situated by a beautiful landscape. We hung with a great band called Kagoule and watched them play. They are really rad and you should all check them out!. It was time for us to play our last set of the tour, we started the first song to about a half packed tent and then by the third song the tent was full. We all gave this show our all, as we were all feeling a bit down that we would be on a plane home the next day. As we played the last song Sophie said we aren’t leaving till you guys sing this one with us, we got the audience shouting “I Don’t Think You Like Me”. It didn’t take much convincing for them all to yell the lyrics at us. We jumped off-stage and everything was going fine until Matt realised he had misplaced his bag which had his passport, laptop and pretty much anything thing else you care about in life in. We looked around and then realised another band had accidentally taken it. We luckily got in contact with them and got the bag back! We walked around and took in the sights before we headed off for the last time.
The Final Wrap Up – Thoughts by Sophie & Ethan.
July 24th – Splendour In The Grass – Homecoming Show
Jet lagged after nearly 20 hours of flying, we arrived in Perth where we spent less than 24 hours trying to recoup, before heading to Brisbane bright and early.
We made it to the site but it was difficult faking a smile or sanity to our partners who we had brought along with us for the vibes. A few of us not being able to eat, some of us suffering from sunstroke and not to mention the over-indulging of liquor to counteract jet lag – it’s safe to say we were all feeling at our lowest. We had arrived at the festival, 3 days early where we thought we could recoup before the show but it was full steam ahead. The first morning we woke up from our sun baking tents and headed to a surf lesson with Beach Slang and the legends from Mambo & Soul Surf School. It was pleasantly therapeutic, beers were drunk and things were feeling more relaxed. We could all learn a couple of lessons from the surfer lifestyle – super chill and far from frantic.
More drinks, familiar faces, friends from bands and idols…the days just kept rolling on. It was now time to play. It was the first time the band had been back together and alone since the tour and this dynamic put us all into better spirits! We headed backstage early, where we received an amazing Splendour show bag – Ethan was so excited to receive his free bottle of fake tan and it wouldn’t surprise me if he developed an addiction to it in the near future…
Words will do no justice in describing the way we all felt up on stage, looking out to the crazy amount of people who gathered so early to watch us play. The feeling of coming home and playing to a packed out tent with our favourite Aussie crowd was the icing on the cake that only exists in lucid dreams. When you spend a month on the road across several different countries as a fairly unknown band you feel as though you have to prove to everybody you’re worth a listen, it isn’t an easy task night after night…What we were feeling right on stage at Splendour was so much different…We’ve never felt so at home and the energy of the crowd was one of our strongest to date. The tour was now at the end and what a way to finish it off. Now we sleep.
Missed any of the previous instalments of the tour diary? Find part 1 here and part 2 here.
Tired Lion’s new EP ‘Figurine’ is now available in the UK. Get your copy from iTunes here.
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