No bands spur tours more off-the-rails than those in Australian metalcore. The 2000s were defined by sprawling, months-long road tours with back-to-back shows in 20-plus towns, a good deal of which would read like gibberish to the everyday city slicker. In the 2010s, there evolved somewhat of an unspoken contest between the bands, to see who could reel in the most insane supports. This led to a trend where, thanks to selffunded runs and the power of the internet, up-and-coming acts could make a name for themselves by headlining over (much more popular) international bands, using those names on the poster as the tour’s primary selling points.
Thanks in no short part to the COVID-19 pandemic, those batshit mental tours came to a fiery death at the turn of the new decade. Border restrictions made it impossible to
