This is my third time touring Australia as a solo artist and my first trip down under since March 2020, where I was when the world began its process of shutting down and we had to race back. Luckily we were just able to finish that tour, though the whole thing seems like a blur now - lost in the before times.
I did two tours in 2020. A three week European run in January (which was making up rescheduled dates from a cancelled tour at the end of 2019 when I got a virus that the doctors couldn’t quite put their finger on, hmm) and a three week jaunt across Australia. Before Australia, we had a show booked in Tokyo but had to cancel it because of a new virus, called the Corona Virus, that kept popping up in the news. I had just read an article about a ship that was quarantined off the coast of Japan when we received an email from the promoter in Tokyo days before flying telling us that the virus had arrived in Japan but we had nothing to worry about. This put me in a tricky position.
My fear at the time was that we would go to Japan and get quarantined inside a hotel and have to cancel our following Australian dates. This would be the biggest financial hit to me - so in the end I made the judgment call to cancel Japan and continue onward towards Australia. This was devastating as I truly love Japan and am still yet to play there as a solo artist - and am so eager to do so. Hopefully soon.
Once in Australia, though, it was becoming clear that we were only going to be able to outrun this new virus for so long. Each day the news felt a little more apocalyptic than the last and it all came to a head when the date of our Melbourne show my drummer Nick came across an article about the 70th case of Covid detected in Australia.
The article said that a man traveling from Adelaide *at this time* on *this airline* to Brisbane had been hospitalized with the virus. We triple checked and to our disbelief, we had been on that same flight. Suddenly it seemed we weren’t going to make it home. At that time it felt like an impossibility you’d actually ever come in contact with the virus, and that if you did then it was something like a death sentence - or at the very least, you’d be quarantined right where you stood, held down by strangers in hazmats.
I called my management who then called the CDC Australia and they told us that we weren’t sitting within six feet of the infected and so unless we had symptoms we were cleared to play and then return home the next day. This was the first time I ever heard the six foot rule.
Having no symptoms we carried on with the show that evening, which felt ominous and sad. We felt guilty wondering if we could be infecting others and when we arrived the opening band told us they just got news that their trip to SXSW in Austin had been cancelled. I had originally planned to stay and vacation in Melbourne for a week after the tour, but like the opening band, I cancelled my trip.
The next day we got on flights back home. Weeks before - when there was still a chance of going to Japan we had somewhat jokingly bought masks just in case. The masks suddenly didn’t seem so funny anymore as we wore them the whole 15 hour flight back to America. When we landed in LA, though, no one in the states seemed to be as bothered as we did. Because of our own experience leading up to that moment it felt like we had inside information that nobody else did. I called my girlfriend, who was in Nashville interviewing her hero Lucinda Williams, and told her to get home as soon as she could.
A few days later the NBA cancelled it’s season as did SXSW and Tom Hanks - while in Australia - announced that he had the virus and the rest, is of course, history.
ALL OF THIS TO SAY I am so so happy to be back here. When the world shut down I remember being grateful that the last trip I took was down under, thinking I may never return to such faraway lands again - but here I am. Australia is both familiar and exotic. It is full of beautiful wild life, people and food and it’s a true thrill to be able to play music here. So far the shows in Sydney and Melbourne have been my best crowds down here yet and I look forward to our second night in Melbs as well as the rest of the dates. Life is good, and I feel very lucky.
ALSO in other KM / OZ related news - my friend
who is currently on tour playing drums in my band is new to Substack! Eric makes a lot of music and is currently documenting our tour with a song a day for his album DAY ROOM DOWN UNDER. The third part to a trilogy that began when he was drumming with Katies band Plains and continued on our European run earlier this year. It’s hilarious and amazing and everyone should follow.ALSO ALSO - after this trip we are playing a show in Jakarta, in Indonesia. Has anyone ever been there? Does anyone live there that reads this thing? Open to all and any tips thank youuuu
Now please enjoy some photos of me in Australia over the years - from my solo tour with Katie here in 2018, the “covid” tour in 2020 and the one i’m currently on.
2018 Solo tour with Waxahatchee aka Bae.
Us at a festival with hero Kim Deal
The night we played the Opera House
on stage at the Opera House
2020 TOUR
The here and now tour:
I was at The Nine Lives Show in Brissy. That was our last live gig /festival we saw before everything shut down. I didn’t know your music at the time and instantly fell in love. I’ve been a huge fan ever since. I still remember your guitarist running onto the stage in the middle of the first song. I wonder if that was a part of the show or if they got held up somehow, I worried and hoped they were okay. See you tonight at The Princess Theatre! Dem
Welcome back to Australia! I’m in that Opera House crowd pic haha