Tour Diary: Deafheaven

After a run of shows I always have so much running through my mind. It’s been a while since I did one of these, so I figured it’s time to start sharing the journey a bit more.

Tuesday 30 May

Deafheaven are arriving in Melbourne today and the tour manager Benn is picking them all up from the airport. I’m always anxious to hear whether everyone arrived safely – and whether their gear did as well. The band are coming from a bunch of different cities around the US, with various connections. There’s plenty that can go wrong and it often does – in 2019, most of Russian Circles’ gear didn’t arrive until halfway through the tour. We had to scramble to find replacement pedals, guitars to get through the first few shows. Last year, some of Chelsea Wolfe’s gear and personal luggage was also delayed for a week. Fortunately, her drummer Jess had an air tag on her stuff, which enabled us to pick it up from Adelaide airport (when the airline had told us that it was in Sydney).

Anyway – Benn lets me know that everyone and everything has arrived safely. A miracle! Plus, he says the band are super chill and lovely guys. It’s my first time meeting and working with them, so it’s nice to hear that.

I also get confirmation that he has the in ear monitors we’re hiring for the tour, so all good there.

On my end, I’m playing an early show on the Gold Coast with my band and then flying home in the evening, for a precious few hours with my family before leaving again. Luckily I arrive just in time to say good night to my son before he goes to sleep.

Often the night before a tour is spent staying up super late to sort out whatever last minute crises have come up – or simply catching up on admin work. This time is different – I’m able to actually go to sleep by 11pm, albeit with a long list of stuff to do the next morning.

Wednesday 31 May

I usually take my son to preschool in the morning around 8am, so I booked myself a midday flight to allow time to pack any last minute things after dropping him off.

Of course today he has a massive sleep in, so I try to get everything done before he wakes up, as I know I’ll be rushing once I get back. I’ve already packed my personal stuff and the merch for Closure in Moscow into suitcases, I just need to pack our EFTPOS terminal, print a few pricing signs for merch and we’re good. Then I remember I also need to pack a selection of Toehider and Closure in Moscow LPs for signing, which I’m just about able to do before it’s wake up time, breakfast time & school drop off time.

Eventually I’m off to the airport with three suitcases laden full of stuff. The one day I need a trolley I can’t find one anywhere near the parking lot so I have to slog it out pushing them all the way to the terminal. Unfortunately for whoever is going to be sitting next to me on the plane, I’m now quite sweaty.

I’m Platinum on Virgin so I’m able to check in quickly and reward myself with a protein bar for the workout I’ve just done. Whilst sitting in the lounge I check in with Benn and he says that Deafheaven’s tech Greg has arrive safely, but his tech bag has not. Luckily this isn’t a showstopper – he’s already picked up some replacement items to get them through the show.

On arrival I get all the bags and take a cab straight to the venue to start unpacking things and setting up merch. Dan Stork, who is an old friend and also Deafheaven’s touring sound guy, is already there, along with Greg and the backline company. I go and introduce myself to Greg and say hi to Dan, who I haven’t seen in just about 12 months since we did the Chelsea Wolfe/Emma Ruth Rundle tour together. I say hi to Jake who is on lights for these shows, hug my favourite inhouse venue guys Teddy & Stev from Max Watts (also my favourite venue) and then get out of everyone’s way so they can set up.

At some point Shiv (guitarist) walks in and I introduce myself, then the Closure in Moscow guys and their sound guy Kev also arrive. We catch up a bit and I give them the records for signing.

I’m always interested to see how bands run their sound check. Deafheaven are pretty relaxed. They pull their sounds, play a couple songs, tweak some things and that’s about it. George the vocalist gives Dan some varying bits and pieces of singing/screaming. I’m immediately impressed by how effortless he seems to do the screaming and I’m quite excited for the show to see how it all comes together. ‘Infinite Granite’ is my favourite Deafheaven record, but I know they’ll play a mix of their whole catalogue, including the famous ‘Sunbather’ record, which turns 10 this year. That’s a long time since they caused ripples with their shoegaze meets black metal epics, but they’ve since released a series of well received records and continued to tour heavily. This year they’ve been on a massive touring schedule, playing shows with Coheed and Cambria across North America, as well as headline tours, festivals and travelling across the globe. They’ve only had a few days off between the last tour and travelling to Australia, so I’d forgive them for being exhausted and a bit cranky, but Kerry and George good naturedly introduce themselves to the Closure guys and then come over for a brief chat at the merch desk before heading off to rest and get some food before the show.

We’ve had a dozen boxes of merch delivered to the venue for Deafheaven and I’ve got a million other things to do on my laptop so it’s awesome when Alex and Kate who are doing merch arrive a bit early. I’ve already counted the Closure stock and some of the Deafheaven stock to give them a head start. They take it from here and I’m grateful they’re able to handle it all and set things up so nicely before doors open.

The past couple weeks I’ve been busy promoting this tour, but have also had 5 Bird’s Robe bands touring Europe and the UK (We Lost The Sea, Solkyri, SEIMS, Mushroom Giant & Svntax Error). There’s been a lot of admin and conversation to go along with it, but they’ve all just about arrived home by the time this tour is starting. So as the post tour admin kicks in, I’ve also got new releases and shows from Hemina, Big Red Fire Truck, Klidas, Hence Confetti, Tangled Thoughts of Leaving, Furnace and the Fundamentals and more to set up and promote. Plus an upcoming tour for Delta Sleep, which is being announced imminently.

Every spare moment to attend to all this work is helpful, but it’s also good to be on the ground at these first few shows to get a vibe for the band, the audience and monitor how everything is being run. My main priority is for the band to be happy, for the audience to enjoy themselves and for the shows to be successful, so that Australia becomes an attractive place for these artists to come and tour. We’re a small country with high costs for touring, so it’s hard to attract great bands regularly and make it a priority for them. For the bands who rely on touring for their income, they may eventually get here, but they have to prioritise the larger tours and festival offers they get in North America and Europe, where they can play 10-20 shows and make things more efficient and economical. In Australia, a ‘tour’ is usually about 5 shows and that’s it. Bands sometimes skip Perth and Adelaide, just because they’re smaller cities and the costs of flying there are higher than ever.

This time round, we’ve got quite a long touring schedule, just because of the way things have played out with timing and venue availability. The band play Dark Mofo on June 15, so after they play Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane, they go to New Zealand for a week, then come back to Australia to do Perth, Adelaide, then Hobart. It’s far from my ideal routing, but it’s offset by plenty of days off and hopefully reasonable flying times – no red eye or crazy early morning flights. However that does mean the budget is a bit tighter as a result, so I’m anxious to make sure we’ve done everything we can to make it work.

Bird’s Robe’s digital content specialist Bridget arrives to help with sorting the merch and has also made Deafheaven branded cookies. Shiv is quite impressed when presented with these and by the time I make it backstage it looks like they’ve been well appreciated by the band (by virtue of a mostly empty box). Bridget did the same for the sleepmakeswaves tour last year when we first met and it’s a very much appreciated gesture!

Time is tight so Bridget and Chris from Closure pick up some food for me whilst we get the final things sorted for the show.

The opening act for tonight is Suldusk, who I’ve recently been chatting with after Emily (singer) reached out to me a couple of times via email. When I finally got around to listening to her 2019 album, I was blown away. As my friend Gilbert said later in the evening “it’s like a river flowing.” The mixture of gothic folk and metal is presented acoustically tonight and she effortlessly moves between soaring clean vocals and screams. I even get to witness a blast beat being played on a djembe by the drummer Zeb. Emily has clearly assembled an impressive cast of musicians (violin, bass, guitar, backing vocals) to bring the music to life and it’s well appreciated by the early audience. It’s my first time meeting Emily and the band in person. We don’t get much time to chat unfortunately, but it’s long enough for me to tell them they did an awesome job.

Closure in Moscow are an odd fit to the tour on paper, but I think it works. They’re more prog soul than post-rock/metal, but it’s a great palette cleanser before Deafheaven. They play a super tight and engaging set of both old and new stuff, including their two new singles ‘Better Way’ and ‘Primal Sinister.’ They sounded and performed great on last year’s sleepmakeswaves tour and they’ve picked up right where they left off. Tonight is a smaller audience than tomorrow is going to be, but it’s well received and I’m excited for tomorrow. I give the guys my feedback, which is pretty much just “that was great, keep it up.” Likewise for Kev their sound guy, who makes sure all the key moments fit right in the mix, including Michael Barrett’s delicious guitar solo in ‘A Night At The Spleen.’ The band are performing in front of Deafheaven’s gear, which means Chris (singer) is a bit closer to Sal (drummer) and the drums/cymbals than normal. This can make it quite hard to mix, but Kev is very experienced and handles it well. Chris also positions himself slightly to the right of the drums which spaces the stage (and also allows us to see Sal’s fantastic playing).

Deafheaven are up and launch straight into ‘Black Brick’ which is one of their heavier releases of recent times. I’m a drummer and it’s awesome to watch Daniel Tracy play these exhausting blast beats without missing a note. Their blend of shoegaze/indie pop/post-rock with George Clarke’s vicious screams is quite captivating. Daniel moves effortlessly between the fast metal stuff and more rock and roll drumming. It’s hard to do, because the technique for ultra fast stuff is often a bit different to more dynamic rock drumming, but he nails both.

Dan Stork has pulled a beautiful sound for them. Kerry & Shiv’s guitars shimmer either side of Chris Johnson’s warm bass sound. Daniel’s thumping double kicks are articulate, but don’t overwhelm the vocals or melody.

Tonight though, I’m most impressed by frontman George Clarke’s stage persona. He combines the energy of a black metal performance with the slinky hips of a Michael Hutchence and the blondy/brown haired swagger of a Rob Thomas. All the while creating his own unique aura, staring down individual members of the audience (including myself), commanding their attention and never once breaking character or intensity.

It's really nice to be able to watch and enjoy the show without jostling for position and that’s part of the reason for doing 2 nights in Melbourne. The shows have sold pretty well considering we only had 10 weeks to promote the tour due to the timing of the Dark Mofo announcement (we couldn’t announce beforehand and it wouldn’t have been fair to Mofo, who booked the band for 2022 before they had to cancel due to covid). But being a Wednesday, it’s a smaller crowd than tomorrow’s Thursday night almost-a-weekend show will be.

It still looks and feels great. There’s plenty of photo evidence too – we have a trio of legendary photographers here tonight, Nate Hill, Mark Hoffman and Nathan Goldsworthy are all capturing the action. I’m a huge fan of their work and they all capture different perspectives of the evening, which is awesome.

Alex and Kate are busy on merch all night for both Deafheaven and Closure which is great. Suldusk sell their own merch using their own square reader. New EFTPOS solutions have made things a bit easier for bands these days, especially since 98% of sales are on card now, compared to 5-6 years ago, when it was more like 50/50. You still need to hope that these underground venues have working wifi to process transactions. But at least you don’t have to walk down the street with $5k in your pocket.

All in all, it’s a great start to the tour.

I’m at the venue until 1am with Alex and Kate as they count out the merch and then off to the hotel to sleep.

Thursday 1 June

I always try to close the curtains as completely as possible in a hotel room to block out the sunglight. Unfortunately I’m unsuccessful, so I wake up earlier than I’d hoped. Two days in the same city is a rare opportunity to pay off the sleep debt that is accumulated when you’re a parent and a touring musician. No joy today, just a headache from being dehydrated.

Regardless, after rehydrating, I do some light exercise in my room and head to the gym to do some weights and run. I’d planned to run longer, but accidentally pulled out the safety switch on the treadmill which stopped it. Oh well.

I’ve arranged to meet up with Mike Mills from Toehider so he can sign some records for fans who’ve requested them from the Bandcamp store. I send out most of the Bird’s Robe band orders as I’ve got a contract with Australia Post which offers cheaper shipping than the bands can get on their own. Being in different cities does mean that requests for stuff to be signed are delayed sometimes, but I’m often travelling so we’re able to make it work.

It's always good to see Mike, we rarely get the chance to catch up in person properly, as we’re always so busy, or when we are together, it’s for a show, or something like that. We go for a walk, talk life, parenting, and next steps for Toehider. He’s in the midst of another 12 EPs in 12 months project, which is an immense task. It’s also very exciting for the fans on his Patreon subscription, who are getting so much new music from his genius level talent. I’m very grateful for his music, as well as his friendship. It’s been 14 years since we first met and he’s one of the guys I feel like I can just pick up with where we left off whenever we chat.

I go back to my hotel to get some more work done, then head out again to eat something and meet with Pat from Treebeard, who I’ve been chatting to over the past few months. We’re going to work together on their next release, as well as a re-release for their aptly titled ‘Nostalgia’ record. Pat is a nice guy and suffers pleasantly as I take an hour to eat a bowl of pasta.

After that I head straight to the venue to check in on Deafheaven’s sound check and get some more work done in the green room. Benn introduces me to a friend of his who works on giant art installations (like the upcoming ‘tree man’ in Melbourne). As I’m leaving to check on merch set up, the conversation turns to possibly working together on something ridiculous for a Furnace show in future. We shall see!

Everything is going smoothly so there’s enough time to go for sushi dinner with Closure in Moscow. Again, it’s rare I get to hang with the guys since they’re based in Melbourne so I’m grateful for every opportunity to bask in their reflected aura of silliness.

I’m back at the venue just in time to give Alex and Kate the cash float for merch and away we go.

Old mate Lochlan Watt is opening tonight’s show with his band RUN. Lochlan is the host of The Racket on triple j, as well as a cancer survivor and long time promoter and supporter of Australian metal, prog and post-rock. I haven’t seen him in person in years and it’s awesome to see him back on stage in full force. The band is tight and they seem cool, though I didn’t get much of a chance to meet them beforehand. I thoroughly enjoy their cover of ‘Iris’ by the Goo Goo Dolls.

Closure have a lot of love in the room tonight and they play well. Kev has the perfect sound for ‘Pink Lemonade’ and despite some issues with the bass, they look and sound great.

The room is full tonight (though not uncomfortably so) and I’m able to find time to chat with my old friend David, meet some of his friends and hang out a bit with Gilbert again.

Then Deafheaven come on and take things to another level. Prior to the tour I was most excited to see the newest songs live, but now I’m in awe of the whole show. I thought George was great last night, but he’s taken things up a notch this evening and it’s very much appreciated by the crowd. Shiv’s lead parts on ‘Worthless Animal’ absolutely shine and the overall emotional impact of the set reminds me of MONO, who we had at the same venue just a couple of months ago. I’m so stoked to be part of this and get to enjoy these shows. Lots of credit has to go to Dan on sound for knowing how to pull the best out of their live mix.

After the show I go in to see George and Kerry backstage and tell them as much. Some bands like to be left alone for a while post show, but they’re happy to chat. We share some fitness on the road discussion and Lochlan also mentions he got up to doing 400 pushups in a day, which is epic!

I get to see Dave Batty (manager of The Jezabels) and Nick O’Byrne (manager of Courtney Barnett) briefly after the show too. Both guys have been big supporters of our scene in the past and it was nice to see them again. As a promoter I’m also glad to get their feedback that they enjoyed the show and the production being up a level from the last time they were here.

Merch is crazy busy but Alex and Kate handle it like pros. Hopefully it’ll help with the budget for the band, who are sacrificing a lot of time away from home and a lot of days away to get over here.

Tonight is a long process of packing down and loading out – Melbourne Backline are trucking all the gear from Melbourne to Sydney, which helps avoid checking in 10,000 items at the airport. The truck is literally packed to the brim – so I’ve still got my suitcases to fly with again. Benn helps me walk them back to the hotel. It’s another workout so I have a protein bar.

I get to bed around 2.30am, which isn’t too bad all in all.

Friday 2 June

Thanks to the truck, there’s plenty of room in the van so I hop a lift with Benn and the band to the airport. Closure are already there checking in and we eventually make it to the lounge for some food before the flight.

When we land, it’s a long walk to the pick up area. There’s not much to carry except for…the three suitcases. And no trolleys in sight. So yeah it’s another workout and once the band, Dan & Greg are all there, I go back to my car and have another protein bar. Then I drive all the way home, to restock merch for a couple of the designs we’re running low on for both bands, then back to the venue.

I’m excited to see Deafheaven play at the Metro, it’s an iconic Sydney venue in the middle of the city. It’s a bit of a stinky stairwell and a rough load in, but otherwise pretty good.

Alasdair Belling (great drummer, plays with dip & Nesher) is an extra stage hand for tonight and a big help loading in and out.

James O’Connor (From The Pit) and Andy Dowling (LORD) are also here to help with filming more of the Bird’s Robe documentary. I do about 45min talking to camera about various things, before we get Benn Newby on to do his interview. Dan is too knocked out to get his done so we plan it for another time and James needs to set up to film the night anyway.

Mel McKenzie has come out of retirement to do merch for this show and promptly starts the sorting and set up process when she arrives. After getting some more work done on the laptop (it is Bandcamp Friday after all and we have a lot of products to put on sale!), I find myself with a moment to go eat something.

Somehow I end up with a protein shake and telling Lochlan that in tribute to him, I’ll be aiming to do 500 pushups between now and the end of the night. I set my timer and roughly every 10-15 minutes I try to find a spot to do a set of 25 pushups. I’m only up to about 225 when I realise I might not be able to make it. Still, I have to earn that protein shake.

Sydney is a busier show for me. I know more people here and I don’t get a chance to see as much of the show as I would like, between doing some urgent work backstage on the laptop, saying hellos and helping out at merch. Mel is a merch machine, but we have a lot of stock and I am still trying to work out the logistics of transporting it between shows later in the tour. I also jump on to cover merch for RUN whilst they are on stage. They actually sell some stuff during their set – I’m not sure if the guy is a super keen fan, or just liked the look of the shirt he bought.

I see enough of RUN and Closure to know that that played and performed well, with Kev pulling a great sound for them. There’s limited side of stage space at the Metro so I jump in to help a bit with the changeover after Closure finish, then leave it to Alasdair and the guys to do their thing.

Deafheaven put on another great performance – it’s exciting to see so many people in the room for them and a great response to their set. They get a huge cheer when George says they’ll be back. I’m not able to see the whole thing, but I make sure I’m in the room for ‘Worthless Animal’ which is fast becoming my favourite. Jake Bylsma is doing a wonderful job on lights here too.

There’s a huge rush on merch at the end of the night so I jump in with a second square reader and Mel is able to start the count out process around the same time that the backline is all being loaded out. I’m able to grab a few minutes debriefing and chatting with Lochlan and Chris in the dressing room.

By the end of the night the truck is jam-packed again, but we’re able to fit in some of the RUN guys’ gear to give them a bit more space in the car for their drive up to Brisbane. As the truck doors close I’m up to 475 pushups, but I’m out of time. It’s the end of the night. Sorry Lochlan, I have failed.

I get home and get to bed around 2.30am. It’s often hard when you’re buzzing from a great show, but the sleep debt ensures that I’m quickly down.

Saturday 3 June

I’m home for half the day so I get to do the morning sports run with my son, come home, have lunch together, then leave for the airport. This time I have four suitcases, but it’s less of a slog and therefore no protein bar required.

My flight is delayed but I manage to get moved to a slightly earlier flight and get to the venue with the remaining merch in just enough time for Sheree to finish counting and setting things up ahead of doors.

I meet a guy from Nambour and we chat over dinner about music and stuff. I make a note to check out his band God Hunter and to stay in touch about potential shows in Nambour.

The Triffid is my favourite Brisbane venue and it’s nice to be back. It’s big enough that the guys have been able to hang the Deafheaven backdrop to add some vibe to the back wall. It’s rare that we do a Saturday night in Brisbane, as often Melbourne and Sydney get the weekend shows, so there are a few more people from out of town than there might normally be.

I’m painfully aware that this is my last show of the tour, so I try to see as much as possible. Kerry from Deafheaven is also at the venue early to watch both RUN and Closure in full, as it’s the last show they’ll do together on this run. Between sets the bands are playing games backstage and I’m chatting intermittently with Benn and Sheree about logistics.

I finally get the chance to relax for a bit and go upstairs to watch Deafheaven with the Closure guys from the balcony. Dan has pulled a spectacular sound for the band and everyone seems to have a bit of extra energy on stage – Shiv and Kerry really go for it in the guitar breaks. George is his usual dynamic self. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed seeing these guys play.

Post show there’s the usual thanks and hugs as the guys depart – I’m always a bit sad to be leaving a tour, as you get into tour mode and live off the high of the shows and the moments of camaraderie backstage. But these days, with excellent people like Benn, Dan and co., I tend to no longer TM the tours myself, so I can spend more time with my family and more time working on other elements, whether it’s promotion, logistics or other projects (like the dozen or so new releases on the label).

Sheree completes a heroic stocktake as everything gets packed up and the various bands head off to accomm for the night. It’s a bit of an earlier start to the day tomorrow due to flight availabilities out of Brisbane, but nevertheless Benn hangs around until the very end to help me load all the remaining stuff into the van, then drives to the hotel and completes a perfect rear park in a very tight parking space.

Sunday 4 June

Not super interesting, but I’m up by 8am, out the door by 8.30am and at the airport by 9am for my 10am flight. It’s not super busy and I get some time in the airport lounge with Closure before they head home to Melbourne.

All in all, an awesome time seeing some truly incredible performances by these bands. I’m super excited for more in the future and there’s a lot going on.

If you haven’t seen Deafheaven live, I highly highly recommend it. It’s entertaining on multiple levels and they’re at the top of their game right now.

Closure in Moscow’s new album ‘Soft Hell’ is out on October 27th

RUN will be recording a new record over the coming months

Suldusk will have a new album out in the next 12 months as well

Good times to come!