FEATURE: Hawthorne Heights - Favourite Aussie tour memory

This week, Ohio emo stalwarts Hawthorne Heights touched down on our shores to begin their Australian tour.

Touring life, as with most travel, is always the bastion for new experiences. While the day-to-day of a professional musician is often littered with both positive and negative aspects, international touring lends itself to new events for visiting bands. Having performed Down Under in the past, Hawthorne Heights are now well acquainted with our country. Vocalist/guitarist JT Woodruff provided us with a snapshot of his favourite memories from his time in Australia.

"First off all, I would just like to say that we are 100 percent excited to be back in Australia, because it's one of our favorite countries. We love the people and how unique the geography is, compared to other places we've been.

As we've gotten older over the years, we've made a commitment to become explorers while touring. We don't allow ourselves to just sit in the hotel room or venue; we demand that one another experience foreign territories together.  So one day, we were off in Sydney and decided to go HAM (hard as a motherfucker).

Our friends in the Sydney band Sienna Skies rented a van for us and brought an entire cooler (Esky?) full of our favorite AUSSIE drinks...SOLO, Victoria Bitters, etc. We started off at Bondi Beach, which is absolutely stunning. I love how it's horseshoe shaped, so the view is great from anywhere. We gave ourselves three hours to walk around, take a swim, and explore Bondi. I spent most of the time in the water, which was pretty chilly, but worth the freeze. My favourite thing in the world is the ocean, so I was in pure heaven. We grabbed a coffee and a bite to eat up on the boardwalk, and then set our sights on Manly Beach. We made the short drive, drinking our AUSSIE bevvies, and talking about the good times. We stopped at some place called "JUMP ROCK" and got talked into jumping off a cliff into the ocean by some locals.  I hate heights...but love thrills. I'm weird.

We got out at Manly Beach, and I was immediately impressed. Long and flat, with roaring waves, it was time to float on. The boys in Sienna Skies and Hawthorne Heights sat out in the sea, fighting the waves, and talking about why it's fun to be in a traveling band. With the crystal clear waters ravaging us, it felt great to be alive.

By the end of the day, we were exhausted in the best way possible. Somehow we found the energy to walk up a hill into a park, full of spiders, to see the Opera House and Sydney skyline in the distance. We hopped back in the van, and ended the day at the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Sydney. They treated us like rock stars, and fed us burgers and drinks, until we had to submit. Australia might be heaven. Thanks for having us back."

Catch Hawthorne Heights, with Mest and London Calling, on tour this month. Details are available via the Facebook event page.