Sydonia ‘Reality Kicks’ Tour Diary: Bendigo-Bunbury

Melbourne’s favourite powerhouse prog-metal rockers Sydonia have had what can only be described as a whirlwind year, releasing their album, ‘Reality Kicks’, and then following it up by kicking off an extensive national tour, which saw them take regional and city stages alike.

In the ever-fleeting downtime between shows, the band kindly offered to document their on-the-road shenanigans in both words and pictures, exclusively for Music Feeds readers. With their acclaimed tour over, readers can now enjoy the final instalment of Sydonia’s ‘Reality Kicks’ tour diary.

Bendigo


Regional Victoria shows are like boxes of chocolate: yummy, sweet and fun. 
Bendigo on a Friday night at Musicman Megastore was extremely cold, but the crowd was extremely warm.

First on was Ergasia, a new group featuring members of our pals Alithia that had a melodic centre with massive, churning guitars. Next up, our half-related brethren I Am Duckeye smashed out a mad set, warming the air with their shenanigans, riffs, and willy puppetry. My favourite is the “hairy tongue,” ’cause it sure is hairy.


Then Zelorage, who wonderfully helped organise the first two shows of this jaunt, pulled out a set of songs that came from dark rooms and scary nooks and crannies. 
We had a great set this night, it really seemed like we had people in the fire all the way through the show, and at the end an encore was demanded.

We smashed out another track, and another encore was demanded, so we, obliging, did another song… then a third encore was demanded, this required brief discussion as to what we could play, then we happily jumped up and belted out Rubber Bullet. 
The barman shouted some shots, got talking to people, and then suddenly it was a lock-in. The bargirl ended up doing an impromptu dance on the bar to raucous applause.
 Bendi-goes-off!



The drive the next day was interesting. We stopped for burgers in a one-silo town called Manangatang. Yup, Manangatang. Epic name! The look of it had us talking about the bodies in the barrels…


Renmark

Renmark is a lovely town on the banks of a gorgeous river, reminding me of its neighbouring town, Mildura. The show there was equally awesome, held in the large back room of the local pub that filled up quite nicely from the very start of the night.
 Favour The Brave did a solid job of opening proceedings with their brand of hard but experimental rock and roll. Duckeye once again had the room in stitches and Zelorage had people up and moving.

We managed a good set, had to cut some tracks as the venue got antsy, but we’re a professional group (well, on stage we are) and played until they told us to bugger off, hah hah. The locals once again dragged us to the bar for drinks and we signed loads of merch and had lots of photos taken with cool cats – operation declared a big success.


Frankston

Big drive to Frankston. By drive, I mean van of arse miasma, and by arse miasma I mean internal, rotting pub meals.
 But we made it, slightly sticky and semi-exhausted, and loaded into the Pele bar.
 Oceans To Athena are local cats that brought loads of people out to see them smash out a great set.


DJ Iceman (funny name to have in Franga) played cool tunes dating back to the ’90s between all the bands. A top geezer, continually giving shout-outs to the bands playing.


Duckeye once again ruled the room, with Sam wearing his ‘op shop in the middle of nowhere’ purchase – a beautiful wedding dress. This made his puppetry at the end of the night even more accessible and I’m sure I saw people trying to imitate the tricks as he did them. 


Franga was very good to a now-quite tired Sydonia, and stuck by us as we launched into a mix of tracks old and new. We finished up with I Will Not Serve in case there was any doubt we weren’t a rock band.

Thanks regional Vic, you’re very good at supporting independent bands.

Perth and Bunbury

The last leg of the Reality Kicks tour, that went very quickly didn’t it? And what better way to wrap things up than visit a part of Australia we haven’t been to for quite some time – Perth and Bunbury. Something For Kate were on our flight over and we had a bit of a chat with them at the baggage collection. Paul and Clint are metalheads and we gave their crew some CDs.

Once we collected everything (nothing went MIA!), we drove to Scarborough Beach, first stopping at a bottle shop of course! We munched down some burgers and it was time to wander to the venue to load in and soundcheck. Amplifier Bar in Perth is smack-bang right in the middle of the city and it’s a really rad venue too. If the Espy Front Bar, the Evelyn Hotel, and the Corner Hotel had a baby, it would look like this.

It had a great green room with a massive TV and a PS3. We were entertained quite well leading up to the show, almost too much? The legends who pledged to our Pozible campaign joined us downstairs to get their vocal lesson as well as a lesson from Sean on how to play the percussion piece Bateria.

Showtime! What a damn responsive crowd, many a head-banger and mosher. The crowd went nuts! We definitely should come back to Perth sooner rather than later, I think. Also, a big thanks to our new friend Vin from Tempest Rising, who kindly put us up for both nights we were in WA, and for providing lots of fun on his Xbox!

Wandering down to Bunbury brought back memories from when we were here the last few times with Dead Letter Circus. Unfortunately, our set had to be cut short. The curfew was changed last minute and as we were setting up we were told that we had to finish by 12pm (it was 11:30om when we were told).

We still smashed out a set and the crowd were appreciative. Driving back we hit a big rainstorm and couldn’t see three meters ahead of us. It was a bit like that movie, A Perfect Storm, except we aren’t fishermen on the rough seas and George Clooney isn’t in Sydonia.

That concludes the Sydonia Music Feeds Reality Kicks Tour Diary. Thank-you to all those that pledged to our Pozible campaign. Seriously, all of this wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for your help. Thank-you to all those that have bought an album and have come to see us on this tour. We hope it’s been worth the wait! See you cats soon.

Head over here for Part 1 and Part 2 of Sydonia’s tour diary!

Gallery: Sydonia Reality Kicks Tour Diary