EXCLUSIVE: The Swellers Australian tour blog (Part 1)

The Swellers are currently in the country at the moment, touring with Sydney's Endless Heights.

The band has played shows in Adelaide, Melbourne, Lilydale and Ferntree Gully so far, and the band's drummer Jonathan Diener has written up a blog post for us talking about the first few days of the tour.

The tour heads to Canberra, Wollongong, Sydney, Newcastle and Brisbane this week, and the dates, venues and ticketing information for the shows can be seen here. Stayed tuned for further updates from Jonathan as the tour progresses.

"We were extremely excited to return to the land down under once again. After a month long tour with Strung Out and Such Gold in the states we were all in high spirits and ready to leave directly from LA to start the tour here. Well, turns out the flight went to Shanghai first.. then another flight to Sydney... then a 16 hour drive to Adelaide for the first show. Why cruel God, why?!? All in all it was about 38 hours of travel time for your favorite Midwestern swell guys. Exhaustion and confusion are the key words in this scenario.

It was great getting to know Chucky and Otis, our crew for this tour, right off the bat. Chucky is an amazing driver, sound engineer and bad joke teller. Otis is a merch guy who likes letting us know he's vegan and loves offensive tattoos (Mr. vaginahead tattoo). After a stupidly long drive we all bonded over confusing free style raps, listening to the new Taylor Swift single and loving gas station food.

The first show in Adelaide was loads of fun. We bonded quickly with our tour mates Endless Heights and got to watch the almighty Paper Arms which blew us away. It's still mind blowing being able to play half way around the world and see familiar faces coming back to shows and singing along. We will never forget that.

The next day we played a club called BANG and it was great. The place was packed with crazy people and after dozing off and coming back to consciousness throughout the night, we had a really fun set. Immediately after our set they let the club freaks loose and I got to impress them with my scratching skills on the turntable. If I keep it up I can make 17 million a year like Skrillex, but I don't want to shave half my head. Sorry, dude.

Yesterday was two shows in a row at different venues. We knew what we were getting into until the jetlag hit us like a ton of bricks. Ryan and I passed out in the van and woke up to Endless Heights taking pictures of us. We ate at a local mom and pop shop the natives call "Subway" then returned with a vengeance and slayed a packed room of Aussies. No we didn't kill them but we played a really fun set for it being 4 in the afternoon.

We hung out a bit then bounced to the next show in Ferntree Gully which was a much more intimate show. We ate too much then played a strangely long set included the song we've never played live, "Running Out Of Places To Go" and it went really well. Other highlights are us each individually playing the first song we wrote on our instruments and combined them, and general lengthy stage banter to make ourselves laugh. You guys got a special show haha!

Today is our much needed day off in Melbourne. We get to recharge our batteries and get ready to kick some ass the last 6 shows before we fly home and do yet ANOTHER tour. We never stop!

Our new EP is coming out on October 15 so make sure you get it from our friends at Shock Records or just head to www.theswellers.com for details!"