Here Are The Band's That We Want To See Open For Tonight Alive

7 June 2017 | 2:57 am | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

Tonight Alive have tasked the public with selecting which local bands will open up for them on their 2017 Australian headline tour.

Tonight Alive have tasked the public with selecting which local bands will open up for them on their 2017 Australian headline tour. Here are our picks!


Tonight Alive's Australian headline tour for 2017 kicks off in late October and runs through to early-mid November, with the tour's national support slot being filled by Melbourne pop-punk/easycore outfit, The Beautiful Monument. The tour will take in seven dates all up, crossing five Australian states overall - Victoria, New South Wales, ACT, Queensland, and South Australia.

In a noble effort to raise further awareness of Aussie bands with women amongst their ranks, the headliners have arranged a voting system allowing punters in each city to nominate which local bands should warm up the crowds for each of the tour's seven shows. As vocalist Jenna McDougall announced via a recent Facebook video (found below). The one and only criteria that the nominated bands need to meet is that they have at least one female member in the band.

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Now, personally, it doesn't particularly bother me what an artist's sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnicity, or gender is - whether they be male, female or otherwise -  as those factors don't necessarily hinder the writing and creation of great music. But this article isn't here to raise a hotbed political issue nor to discuss either side of the debate around a higher representation of women in Australia's alternative and heavy music circles. (I'm all for more inclusion, just in case you're wondering). No, this piece exists to simply talk about the actual bands and the actual music, as Tonight Alive have very clearly laid down the business model and framework regarding this particular tour and how the supporting artists will be chosen; a system that reflects their own core values. And as this is their tour, they're well within their right to do just that. Ergo, tough shit to the people out there who unironically use terms such as "snowflakes" or "SJW" as insults, and who are often the very same people that comment such ill-advised drivel like "Why don't they just pick bands that are good and deserve it?".

Anyway! With that behind us, this selection process got me thinking about good homegrown talents that fit this tour's criteria whom I'd just love to see open up for The Beautiful Monument and Tonight Alive come October and November. So here are my picks for which bands you should keep in mind when casting your own votes. (And if you do end up discovering some cool new bands out of this, that's all the sweeter for me).

The first show of the tour is in our nation's very own festering capital city of Canberra.

I will admit that I'm not as familiar with the local music scene of native Canberra as much as I'd like to be, what with me being rural Victorian scum and finding very few bands I genuinely like when I search 'Canberra' on my KYS Gmail account. However, one band that has my attention lately is the moody, fuzzy alternative rock style of Moaning Lisa, who could do benefit quite well with such an opportunity. Their recent four-track EP, 'The Sweetest', is still pretty damn fresh and showing it off in front of a different audience from their usual crowd could be a significant boost for this four-piece.

Be sure to suss out a solid cut from their March EP, 'Shoe-In', below!

Now, the burnt of this tour will be hitting NSW, with a show each in Newcastle, Wollongong, and of course, Sydney.

As for Wollongong, a soothing indie-pop quartet like The Last Exposure could indeed be a prime act to warm up those early Unibar punters. As for Sydney, I would've once said that a really good fit for this tour would actually have been Blossom; what with their lush rock soundscapes, restrained tempos and well-written hooks. But Blossom might as well be broken up now, so there goes that option right out the fucking window.

Which leaves me with recommending the guitar-driven, danceable tunes of all-girl indie-punks, BandInTexas, and that's not a bad thing at all, as their track 'The Scientist' proves!

As for Newcastle, that's a very obvious pick for me - alternative/pop-punk legends, Eat Your Heart Out.

I saw this quintet last year while on tour with Dregg and Stepson and while they weren't the most energetic live band of all time, they sounded bloody brilliant live! Singer Caitlin Henry and her four bandmates recently signed to Fearless Records (Tonight Alive's previous label, in fact) and their 2016 EP, 'Carried Away', has just been re-released to the wider masses under said label; pushing Eat Your Heart Out's music to more and more ears. While I'm half-fan, half-detractor when it comes to Fearless' bands, I'm very excited for what they could do for EYHO's career. And I don't think I need to speculate too much, as their song 'Patience' is one of the finest examples of what this band can do.

Further up the Australian coast is Brisbane, and while having an extreme and volatile band like Manhunt would be an utter sight to see on such a bill, let's face it; that would never, in a million years, happen.

Thus, my bets are on either the decent alt-pop stylings of Stateside (the "Australian PVRIS", as some have called them), the bright and upbeat Joy In Motion, or Skies Collide - a band who seems to have taken some big musical cues from Tonight Alive's earlier albums. Yet if there's any justice at all in this world, then the beautifully haunting and dreamy shoegaze tunes of Deafcult - whose upcoming record 'Auras' is set to be a real treat - should hopefully snag that opening spot.

Second to last on this national stint is Adelaide, and if I had it my way, the local angsty SA crew in The Skategoats (I fuckin' love that name, by the way) would be the ones to hit the stage first at Fowlers Live.

As for the tour's final date at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne, where do you even fucking begin with the many great bands that walk the city's streets? I mean, there's just too many to choose from!

Narrowing it down, I'd love to see either the always-solid High Tension, cult-punk heathens Pagan, energetic rock newcomers Press Club, JJJ indie faves Camp Cope, or metalcore maestros Drown This City. But I would be lying to you all if I said that Outright weren't my top pick. Because they are! I've seen Jelena Goluza and co. handle their own and then some with immensely solid sets at smaller venues like the aforementioned Corner Hotel and Footscray's Phoenix Youth Centre to a mighty fine job of opening up for Rise Against and Clowns back in December 2015 at Melbourne's "I believe in marriage as a union between a man and a woman" Arena (AKA Margaret Court Arena). On top of that, their 2014 LP, 'Avalanche', is an exceptional hardcore record and one that's practically essential listening for any Australian hardcore fan.

[caption id="attachment_1093169" align="alignnone" width="760"]My reasoning for submitting Outright. My reasoning for submitting Outright. Seems sound enough, yeah?[/caption]

Of course, due to the fanbase of Tonight Alive and the band's grossly poppier style of recent years, I have a very strong hunch that it'll be the lighter sounding bands that will score those opening spots in each city; bands like Joy In Motion, TerraStatesideBlossom, and so forth. That's not to say that those bands are bad per say - not at all, I mean, I do love adore Eat Your Heart Out to no end. - more so that they're simply more fitting for the headliner's aesthetic and sound. Still, sonic variation and mixed bills are a good thing, so my fingers are violently crossed that a couple heavier acts make it through here.

You can nominate the bands you'd like to see support the Sydney pop/rock outfit on tour right here. Although, do take note that you can only vote once, annoyingly enough, so choose carefully. (Outright were my one vote, in case you couldn't tell).

And hey, even if you aren't planning to head out to one of these shows, at least go and help a local band get a leg up. You know, rack up good karma and all that jazz.

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Tonight Alive's 'Back To Beginnings' tour is on sale now, and hopefully, they bring out the older and frankly better jams for this one. The Live Nation Presale goes down on Wednesday, June 7th (today) and the general sale goes live on Thursday, June 8th.

Stream the band's latest single, 'World Away', below. At least it's better than anything that was on 'Limitless'...