Photo Diary: The Bennies US Tour

Bennies frontman ANTY HORGAN shares – and captions – 20 photos from the band’s recent US tour, spanning booze, hangovers and more booze.

Firstly, I should introduce myself. I am Anty and I sing and play synth in a party band from Melbourne called The Bennies. We recently did a month-long tour of the United States. We travelled round California, to New York, to Michigan and then on to Florida. These photos are pretty crappy quality and mostly blurry, and for some reason a bunch have a weird purple haze to them … which is probably a fairly accurate depiction of our headspace throughout the tour.

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01) CHRON DOG
We managed to get completely smoked out throughout our time in America. California ripped us a new one. One of these was good for getting shit done, and one was good for sleeping … I can’t remember which one was which.

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02) FRESH STYLEE
Jules bought a sweet new jacket and finally became the rock god he always wanted to be. This photo was taken at Hunter’s house. We crashed with him for about a week and played a bunch of shows with his band, The Darlings.

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03) THE BENNIES ARE SIDE ONE DUMBARSES
We were dumb enough to not be organised enough with our merch so we got some vinyl sent to SideOneDummy [record label] in LA. When we walked in, there was Smith Street Band and Violent Soho shit everywhere!! It was rad to come across the other world and see ya friends killing it. Craig is pretty pumped here!

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04) CAUGHT THE CRABS
On the far right there is Alex. He plays drums in Guttermouth and sings in Fuckface Unstoppable (Bam Margera’s band). He was the first person we met on this whole tour. He is one of the best dudes I’ve ever met and he kinda took on the role of our tour manager for the first week or so. This is us eating at a place where they just pour shrimp on the table and they don’t have plates in the whole restaurant.

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05) SOUTH CALI TO SAN FRAN
This is a shitty-as-fuck photo, but I love it. We drove through the desert from South Cali to San Fran to play Gilman Street in East Bay. It kinda all looked like the set of Breaking Bad. Staying in shitty motels and drinking red wine is one of my favourite things to do on tour … it’s really uncomfortable in some ways, but there is something comforting about it.

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06) DABS
DABS

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07) PRE-FEST
This is a photo of us playing in Ybor at Pre-Fest. Wil and Chris from The Smith Street Band joined us on stage cos we can’t sing for shit.

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08) STATCH-MO
We did a night-time boat ferry to check out the old gal in NYC. Funny looking at this photo … somehow we always managed to have beers.

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09) FUCKIN’ DUNIES
We partied with the Dune Rats on a few different occasions while in the States. This crap photo was taken during one of their sets in NYC. Rad dudes, rad times.

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10) TWO POTS > ONE PINT??
Craig has this weird thing where he is convinced that two pots is better than a pint. I don’t understand it at all (it’s more expensive and you have one less free hand). We went to one of the oldest bars in New York, where they only serve you two pots at a time … nothing else. Needless to say, Craig wouldn’t shut up about this for the rest of the tour!

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11) HANGOVERS
No one really talks about the hangovers on tour or the horrible packing and repacking of cars. I reckon this photo sums it up pretty well: cold and grey and shit. Also, me not helping :)

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12) LIGHT UP THE SKY
FIREWORKS FIREWORKS FIREWORKS!!!!!!!!

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13) FEST
This is a photo from The Fest in Gainesville, Florida. This is the whole reason we booked the tour. There is a dude in the front row called Russian Tim.

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14) CRUCIAL SNOOZE
Craig is pretty great at squeezing in sleep wherever possible. This is on the subway in NYC.

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15) PBR
PBRs are everywhere in the States. We started calling them ‘Shit-the-beds’. Here is Bowie passed out in bed holding an open ‘Shit-the-bed’.

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16) LEE HARTNEY SEX DRIVE
We gave Lee Hartney of Smith Street Band fame a lift from Ybor to Gainesville for Fest. He was full of conversation and really enthusiastic…

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17) COOKING UP SOME RIFFS
I can’t use a normal keyboard stand cos of my delay pedal. This was probably the funniest and most inventive keyboard stand of the whole tour. A Webber BBQ. This photo was taken at a venue called VLHS in Pamona – an unreal all-ages DIY venue. We supported a band called Hard Girls this night … best dudes, best band!!!

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18) THIS IS THE BROOKLYN STREETS
Here we are chilling in Brooklyn with some ska celebrities, Jeff Rosenstock from Bomb the Music Industry and Dan P from Dan P. It’s kinda hard to tell from this photo, but this is really early in the morning after a massive night … and we are ripped as shit.

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19) RECORDING
We recorded two songs in Ybor at Pre-Fest. The two dudes who were recording are Reiss and Steve, who have recorded every Flatliners release to date. Wil Wagner did some vocals as well. Also, it’s pretty fucking funny: The Interrupters recorded a bunch of stuff … they literally interrupted our recording, haha. None of us can remember the two songs we recorded. We wrote them two days before we recorded them … laid it down then moved on. It was kinda like cramming for an exam.

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20) CHILL BLAZING
Just a couple of chillers drinking cocktails while some other chiller goes jet skiing. You can’t tell from the photo but they were playing Bob Marley over the sound system at the time as well. Gold.

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The Bennies’ new five-song EP ‘Heavy Disco’ is out now on CD, digital and 7” vinyl through Poison City. It follows their 2013 album ‘Rainbows in Space’. They’re currently supporting NOFX nationally; upcoming tour dates and festival slots below.

Fri, Nov 21 – The Forum, Melbourne, VIC [w/NOFX, sold out]
Sat, Nov 22 – The Tivoli, Brisbane, QLD [w/NOFX, sold out]
Sun, Nov 23 – Coolangatta Hotel, Coolangatta, QLD [w/NOFX, sold out]
Sat, Dec 6 – Reverence Hotel, Melbourne, VIC [w/The Smith Street Band, Fear Like Us + Rockenspiele]
Sat, Dec 30 – NYE on the Hill, Pound Creek, VIC
Sat, Jan 24 – Beechworth Music Festival, Beechworth, VIC
Sat, Feb 21 – Soundwave, Adelaide, SA
Sun, Feb 22 – Soundwave, Melbourne, VIC
Sat, Feb 28 – Soundwave, Sydney, NSW
Sun, March 1 – Soundwave, Brisbane, QLD