I Exist - Halloween Melbourne shows - Day 3 and 4

Benny eats a chip, Jake or Jarred took these photos

We ate breakfast at a cafe called retro, they make vegan breakfasts, but they were basically a pretty average plate of fried vegetables.

This photo is basically Paddy in a nut shell; coke, internet on phone, flat brim.

Sean spends his week days saving the economy.

We met up for lunch at Bimbos with Craigos, who runs Midnight Funeral Records and put out the I Exist 7”, for some reason I didn't take any photos of him. The place is a  bar that serves food and is full of big couches. We ate $4 pizzas that were really really good, they have one with soy cheese, but it's apparently not vegan so we got vegetable toppings without cheese.
There's minimal lighting inside the place but big windows onto the street let just enough light in to shoot 1600 ISO at f/1.8.

With a few hours to kill before the gig we went to a park to drink beer, fruit juice and pepsi max.

We also climbed some trees and watched a bunch of birds trying to have sex.

We turned up to load in at the venue to see this running sheet stuck up on the walls inside.

We then spent the remaining time before the gig being mean to a parking inspector and cutting sleeves off shirts.

I've only been to one show at this venue before, it's pretty good for bands to play, as gets them seen by a lot of people and they get paid a good amount, but the crowds at these places are the worst people, I genuinely hated every second I was in this this place.

The first band that played were Lover's Grave, they're are a newish band from Melbourne, I think this was like their 5^th show. I saw their first gig a few months ago when they played at the Arthouse with dead kings. I like them, but I wasn't really having a good time when they played.

Sam almost didn't get let in because he left his I.D. in Canberra, and he looks about 15 years old, so he had to walk to a police station and get a signed declaration of his age. I didn't take any photos when I Exist played. But they played really well, it sounded good and was very loud. Jake seemed really into it, more than usual and he seemed to startle the audience whenever he jumped off the stage, like they didn't understand what he was doing running around amongst them.

In Trenches were headlining, I wasn't real keen on their album when I first heard it, but seeing them live a bunch of times, I've really started to enjoy them.

Kevin is a maniac with his guitar.

It's always easier at live shows to take photos of the front man, they're up the front the most and generally move around more than other members, also I was lighting with a speedlight either side of the stage and the light evened out in the centre. That's why most of the photos are of Coyte.

Day 4 - going home

Benny got tattooed by Matt Gordon the day before.

I think it looks really good with the solid black, but I still think an old school telephone with 'smoo operator' would have been cool. Benny was forced to rock a midriff top for the ride back.

On the way back we stopped at a small town called Woomargama, it's a very small country town and the only reason we stopped there is because there is a giant pentagram pained on a shed, that is visible from the highway.

We stopped there on the way to Melbourne months ago when Dead Kings and I Exist toured together. We jumped the fence and took a crew photo, because it was too good a location to pass up.

This time there was a bearded guy mowing the lawn in an iron maiden shirt as we approached. The following conversation took place;

Jake: Hey man, our band's on tour, and we were wondering if we could take a photo in front of your shed?

Bearded man: Fuck yeah!
Jake: Thanks a lot man
Bearded man: I'm just glad someone appreciates my artwork.

The guy was really cool and we asked him to join us for a photo.

Good times, good tour.