5 Best Australian Experiences By Garrett Nickelsen from The Maine

November 30, 2015

By Garrett Nickelsen

Arizona pop rock outfit The Maine are due to set foot in the country for the first time in nearly 3 years with the first gig of their Australian tour kicking off tonight. To celebrate we got Garrett Nickelsen of the band to run us through their 5 greatest experiences ever, in our bloody fine country. Check out all their dates and ticket links below!

5. A Small Italian Restaurant in Melbourne

The last time we were in Melbourne our friends in the band Anberlin showed us a restaurant that they recommended we go to. I don’t know the name and I have no idea where it is in the city but it was amazing! It was a real small place that could maybe fit 15 people inside. The coolest part of it was the table in the kitchen where we got to sit. There were no menus, no server just what ever the chef wanted us to eat he just threw it in the table for us to push down our throats. Never had so much fun at a restaurant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtXF1_CY6_c

4. Beach Days

We sometimes call tours “vacation tours” and Australia is for sure one of those kind of tours. Everyday we try and end up at a beach, or just walk around the city to see things we never have before. Most tours you kinda just sit around till show time. Not many places on earth can you get all the boys to go walk about but Australia can.

3. Kangaroos

Holy Shit they are real and you can pet them. That is all you have to say about that.

2. Soundwave

The first we got to come to Australia was on the Soundwave festival. That was one of my favorite tours we’ve ever done. So many of our friends were on that tour and we got to meet a lot of bands we always looked up to. I mean when else can you play a show then watch Third Eye Blind and then run over and catch the end of Iron Maiden’s set. It was totally insane!

1. Stealing Kesha’s Van

Of all the great times I had in Australia the very best was grabbing a cab home from the bar. We all went out to one of the bars after a Soundwave show. Us, Mayday, and a few other bands were all hanging having a good time when John and I wanted to call it a night. We walk outside the bar and there is a huge fuss going on. We didn’t give too much thought to it and just walked into this van.

We are sitting for a few moments when some pissed off guy sticks his head in and says ‘What the fuck are you doing?! This is Kesha’s van. Get out!” Before we even get time to answer the cab driver makes the decision for us and just drives away. So I’d like to thank that cab driver for sticking it the man and driving us back home.