It was a Saturday afternoon and I was sitting in my studio with Jarrod when he hit me with some news.
“Morgan and I are having a baby,” he said.
Incredible.
I was ecstatic for him and we hugged it out…
I hadn’t said anything to anyone, but the truth was, I was sitting on some big news myself.
“Well, I guess now’s probably a good time to tell you that Maddy and I are expecting too”
It was wild.
Both of us, in the same room, finding out that we were going to become dads in the new year.
There’s a lot that goes through your head when you hear news like that.
There’s joy. There’s excitement and there’s… well, slight anxiety.
When you play in a band, there’s another thought that creeps in too.
Time.
Because when you’ve got kids on the way, you know life is about to change.
The spare nights you’d usually spend writing songs, recording demos, packing merch, and rehearsing are about to look a little differnt.
Nappies, bottles and broken sleep are about to become the new norm.
So once our celebrations were out of the way, Jarrod and I had the same thought.
Our first proper tour.
Saying we wanted to tour was one thing—actually making it happen was another.
Our first move? Data.
We pulled numbers from Spotify to see where people were actually listening to our music. Then we looked at CD sales to back it up.
After a couple of hours buried in paperwork, we narrowed it down—Newcastle, Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne looked like our best bets.
The next few days were filled with phone calls to venues.
"You need a bigger following to book here."
"We only take bands with XXXX amount of followers and listeners."
"You guys might be a little too heavy for our venue."
But finally, we locked in four shows:
The Hamilton Station Hotel (Newcastle), The Lord Gladstone (Sydney), The Basement (Canberra) and The Tote (Melbourne)
With dates and sound engineers sorted, the tour was officially booked!
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Newcastle was the first show and our first time playing outside the Central Coast and Sydney. It was the real test—were people actually listening to us beyond our usual spots?
FIST and Long Distance warmed up the crowd before we hit the stage just after 9:30 PM on Friday night. Playing to a new audience on the first night of our tour was unreal.
We even tested out a couple of brand-new songs—Oscar Bravo and Blame It On Me—for the first time.
The rest of the night? A bit of a blur after I agreed to a mid-set shot of Southern Comfort. No regrets.
The next night, we hit The Lord Gladstone in Sydney.
To this day, it’s still one of the best gigs we’ve played. We were packed into the downstairs corner bar, and it was standing room only—the place was absolutely chockers.
Blake Cateris opened with his smooth acoustic tunes, then FLORA pumped the crowd up with their high-energy rock set.
It was a proper DIY setup, which suited us perfectly—it felt like one of our rehearsals back home, just with way more people.
And for the first time ever, random strangers showed up just to see us. They’d either bought a CD before or found us on a streaming platform. That was a surreal moment.
Before booking Canberra, I was warned to keep my expectations in check—not because of the city or the venue, but because we were still a relatively unknown band.
We made the three-and-a-half-hour drive to the capital, not knowing what to expect. Would anyone show up at all?
We set up, sound-checked, grabbed some food, and knocked back a couple of anxious beers.
Parrots With Piercings opened the night and absolutely crushed it. For a duo, they make a lot of noise!
Then we hit the stage—and to our surprise, we were playing to a full room. Phew.
We blasted through the set, got the crowd involved, and celebrated with another drink. But with a seven-hour drive to Melbourne the next day, we kept it tame and tried to get some rest.
There’s no place like Melbourne. It’s a city where I always feel relaxed and welcome—arty, colorful, and deeply rooted in the punk scene.
After a mad dash through Victoria, we arrived at The Tote less than an hour before showtime.
We linked up with the legends from Outtaspite, who were stoked to be playing the corner bar with us.
This was the last show of the tour, so we made it count—we announced the name of our debut album, played a couple of new tracks, and wrapped up the night in style.
After packing up, we celebrated with dumplings and beers.
We spent 22 hours in the car that weekend.
By the end, we were tired, a little hungover, and running on fumes. But we’d done it—we’d finished our first-ever tour.
And we can’t wait to do it all over again.