Now, more than a year later, the band are returning to Australia, and it promises to be just as memorable a tour for the band. Although for a very different reason. This time they are supporting the mighty Californian punk band Pennywise, on what is quite a momentous tour for them. Not only is it the band’s 25th anniversary, but it is also their first trip back to Australia since the return of their original singer Jim Lindberg, who left the band for around three years between ’09 and last year. Greg agrees that this makes the coming tour even more special.
“Yeah, absolutely,” he says. “It’s a big deal for them, and it’s great that Jim’s back in the band, I’ve never actually met them before. But we’ve only heard the best things about the guys, so it sounds like it going to be a really fun tour.”
On top of all of that, he is very much looking forward to playing the smaller, sweatier, more intimate clubs and pubs to a specific punk rock audience, as opposed to the massive, impersonal 40,000 strong festival crowds that they played to at Soundwave.
“Oh yeah, we’re even more excited for that,” he enthuses. “The people that are there won’t be like, ‘Oh I’m going to check out blah blah band’ and they’re walking by and they might hear us. They’ll be there for punk rock, and it’s going to be a lot more fun.”
Having said that, since it’s only their second ever trip to Australia, and they’re playing to a rabid Pennywise crowd, many people at the shows won’t know much about The Menzingers. But Greg is confident that they will win people over with the exuberance of their delivery, and the amount of material they will pack into a short set.
“It’s kinda spontaneous, it’s full of energy,” he describes. “We only play for a half hour, so we play as many songs as we can in that time. It usually turns out to be between nine and eleven songs. We just don’t stop, pretty much, we just pound it all together. And yeah, it’s usually just a really good time.”
It’s been a year since the release of their last album, All or Nothing, and by all accounts reactions to the album have been almost unanimously positive, from critics, fans and in a live sense. So much so that the band still has massive demand for their live show around the world. From Australia, the band head back to the States for a few dates and then head to Europe and the UK for a very extensive tour, on some very eclectic bills.
“It’s been great,” he says, regarding the response the latest album has received. “It’s been amazing. We’ve had some really, really flattering reviews. We noticed from the first time we played the new songs live, people went off more for the new songs than the old songs! That’s kind of a good feeling, you know? It’s like, ‘Ok, they’re into this, we don’t have to be worried!
Referring to the lengthy European jaunt, he says he’s really looking forward to heading over there.
“We’re playing some massive festivals, with everyone from Eminem to Nine Inch Nails – we’re playing in the middle of a field in Slovenia. It’s gonna be a lot of fun, we’ve been over a couple of times, and some of our absolute best friends live in Germany, the UK and Austria, so it’s just gonna be a great summer vacation.”
It’s at that point the band will actually get a little time off, and then start recording their fourth album, tentatively pencilled in for a 2014 release. In fact, serious work has already commenced on their next record.
“We’re going to take a month off (after the European tour),” he informs us, “and hopefully around October/November is when we’re going to record. Just today we finished up demoing five new songs for the record.
“So that pretty much rounds us out for the rest of the year. We might do a couple of smaller things around the States, maybe a week or two, but nothing too crazy. And then just plan for the next year.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
