“It was probably the most easy going tour we’ve done,” he recalls. “You guys have a different structure over there, of doing the matinee shows and the 18-up or under shows later on. And we found that staying in the city for a couple of days in order to do a few shows was a lot easier on us. We got to just relax and go to the beach and enjoy Australia. So we probably enjoyed that tour more than other countries. We had a good tour guide and we had more time to see and experience things. We also had some great barbecues over there,” he recalls.
Outside the culinary delights that our country serves up, Kelen is also looking forward to the shows and the lineup as a whole. Especially one very high profile act. “I’m anxious to see the next wave of bands announced, because the first was pretty good,” he says. “I listened to a lot of those bands when I was younger, so it’ll be fun to not only play but to see a bunch of bands that influenced me.
“Of course Green Day are an influence on us,” he states. “Over a stretch of three years, I can’t remember not playing a Green Day song in a talent show – that was me as a kid, a big guitar player kid.”
Unlike many musicians, Kelen actually enjoys playing the big festivals more than the smaller, sweatier, more intimate club shows. “I like festivals for the sake of playing outside,” he reveals. “There’s something about [playing festivals] that’s less claustrophobic. And I think it engages people with the music a bit better in some cases, not so much with people having a reaction and jumping off whatever they want, but I think there’s something about playing outside that makes me feel more comfortable. I don’t know what it is; music’s just kinda nice outside.”
That said, he certainly doesn’t discount the vibe created at a late night indoor gig. “I like those better for the experience of people crowd surfing and jumping off speakers and doing whatever. There’s something about being indoors after hours that makes people want to go crazy!”
The band have exactly that type of reputation when it comes to their live show, and Kelen is very happy for that to be the case. So Aussie fans can expect a very wild show from The Story So far at Soundwave, and at any sidewave shows they happen to do. “You know, it’s kind of odd how we have this universal expectation that our shows are going to be crazy,” he says, “and people follow that mentality wherever we go. When we played in Australia it was no exception; I remember playing there one night, and security walked out on us – it got kinda messy,” he laughs again. “We’ve had a few occasions of that. While we were in – I want to say it was Sydney, but I’m not positive – there’s always the expectation that there’s going to be one show (on a given tour) that’s going to make the entire trip worthwhile.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
