As Counterparts make their way across the country alongside Architects and Thornhill, we only saw it fitting to grab frontman Brendan Murphy for a chat about his fav memorable experiences of touring Australia.
From a stolen guitar incident to discovering what Schoolies is, all the way through to DJing at Hot Damn! in Sydney with a Hayley Williams face mask... Read on!
1. The Australian Fans Banded Together
My first memorable moment in Australia was our first time there and we were on tour with In Hearts Wake and we played at the Eagleby Community Center (Queensland - IYKYK). We loaded out and left after the show, and then the next day we realized that Jesse's (our guitarist) guitar was missing. So we hit up the venue and we were looking at the security camera footage and shit. It was a video of this fan walking into the venue and taking our shit. He took Jesse's guitar and left. I remember posting about it, we ended up getting a guitar that we could use, like I think we went to a guitar store and bought one.
But we set up a tip jar at the merch table. This is like, you know, 2013 or something, we had to get our friend to put the flights on his credit card because we didn't have any money to get there because it’s expensive to get there. We were screwed and Jesse didn't have a guitar. The tip jar had a note saying some dipshit took Jesse's guitar, please help us. And we paid for the guitar in like two days.
Everyone was freaking out saying you don’t tip in Australia, and we used that money to buy Jesse a new guitar. That was cool to see people banding together, to support you. We weren’t mad, but we were like, fuck whatever. But people in Australia were like, we'll find them and fucking kill 'em, I'm just like, yo, don't worry about it. If they needed it that bad, then whatever, it doesn't matter. But the whole country was like, all right, Counterparts is finally here for the first time. We’re going to make sure that they're taken care of. And I was like, man, this fucking rocks. Like, this is so sick.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPBopgSh8Ka/
2. Introduction to Australian Creepy Crawlies
One time before tour started, we were staying at a friend's house. Our guitarist at the time, Adrian wanted to go a little bit early and go on vacation to go see Jimmy Eat World when they were doing, I think it was the 10-year shows or album shows.
There was one night where I drank way too much. Our friends had a bathroom outside. I was like, okay, like I'm gonna go throw up in like the outside bathroom. Did that, apparently there was broken glass all over the floor or something like that. At about three in the morning, I’m crazy jet-lagged. This is like day two. I open the bathroom door and see broken glass all over the floor. I run and sprint and jump over it, go inside. They had an air mattress set up for us in the living room. I'm lying on it at around four in the morning and I just hear something moving. And I'm like, 'what the fuck is that? What is that?' And I like look around trying to find this thing. And so, I'm walking around with my phone flashlight, and I see a huntsman spider and I'm like, 'oh God.' I start screaming because it’s the size of a basketball, and I start screaming and I'm thinking we're dead. We’re done. We're going to die. Everybody wakes up and we thought we put it outside.
I go to bed the next morning at 7:00am and I wake up randomly and I was on my phone and then I hear one of our friend's roommates from their bedroom screaming there's a Huntsman in there. And I was pretending to be asleep. But that was the first time I ever saw Huntsman.
3. The Best Vacation Ever
Another one of my favourite memories of Australia was being on tour with Northlane and having five days in Melbourne, that was like, the best vacation of my life for sure. That was so sick. Being in a really nice hotel right downtown, getting to do all the cool stuff. We went to like some VR arcade that our friends brought us to. We were bowling, I don't bowl. But that was great.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Co1faxjBs08/
4. Discovering Schoolies!
So on the same tour, I found out what Schoolies was, and I was like, oh shit.
Like Ozzy Breno Schoolies. That’s my shit. So I went ape shit about Schoolies and a friend of a friend, Northlane’s homie, hooked me up with this bar that he worked at and they let me DJ. It's Schoolies and there was a flyer for the Northlane after-party. It's Ozzie Breno, Schoolies and I got belligerent.
https://www.instagram.com/p/v7bdrlQYdZ/
5. DJing Hot Damn as Hayley Williams!
Similar vibe. But another one of my favourite memories was at Hot Damn in Sydney.
We got asked to DJ that, this is after the show. I think it was me and Drew from Stray From The Path and we were both absolutely belligerent. I don't remember much from the night, but I remember at one point I was like, 'If you guys have requests, come up to the booth and tell me what you want.' And then when people got to the booth and asked for a song, I'd be like, 'fuck no, get outta here.' And we would boo them. They had these masks and I remember having one, it was a Hayley Williams from Paramore mask on a popsicle stick.
I had it over my face and I was smoking a cigarette through it inside. And I'm like, 'It's me, Haley Williams from Paramore, do you guys wanna hear Fireflies or Shake It by Metro Station?'
There are so many crazy crazy Australian stories. I feel like it brings out the best in me. I feel like I'm the most fun when I'm in Australia for sure but of course, the shows are the best.
Written by Brendan Murphy @bjm905
Counterparts' latest album A Eulogy For Those Still Here is out now.
Catch them in Brisbane supporting Architects on Feb 22
