Shai Hulud - Seaford Melbourne

I'm really late in puting these photos online. This was the Melbourne all ages show on the 23rd of May. It was meant to be the last show of the tour, but a few days before hand another show was added in Sydney. Pretty happy with the shots from this show, able to get a flash slightly out the front of stage left, giving me more front light than usual, resulting in brighter images.

Shai Hulud - The Arthouse Melbourne

This was the best show of the tour.

Shai Hulud Adelaide

I Exist - Tour Blog 5

Closest thing we got to a Canberra show was in Queanbeyan, good turnout, a lot of people came from Canberra, sound was bad all night especially vocals, apparently the venue had purchased their PA the day before, and didn't really know how to use it.

Just Matt Fox of Shail Hulud playing with I Exist, no big deal. Josh played guitar with them for this show, and Matt stepped in for the song '333'.

I Exist - Tour blog 4

All ages show at Shed 5 on the Gold Coast, most of this gig was in black and white.
Last time I was at this venue I Exist played on the floor, as the stage here is quite tall, especially for hardcore gigs. This time however the venue wasn't keen on this, despite all of the bands wanting to. Last time here the gig was great, so many kids were there to see I Exist, this time however it was obviously a Shai Hulud crowd, with all of the supports not getting much of a crowd reaction.
Show lit with a 430ex bounced into the roof on stage, front stage left side, and a 430ex stage right backlight.

I Exist - Tour blog 3

Overnight drive from Sydney to Brisbane, with an early morning stop at the big banana.

End of Tour

The tour was great. Every band killed it every night. Final show at the Sando sold out and was one of the best. Obviously I didn't put up many tour blogs, finding time and decent internet wasn't as easy as I'd hoped, so over the next couple of weeks or so I'll hopefully get all the photos from all the shows up. A couple of people had

I Exist - Tour blog 2

Ollie sings for Fixtures and is on the tour selling merch for Shai Hulud and just being a creep in general.

 But seriously Fixtures are really good, especially for a bunch of high school kids.

Hand of Mercy 

Before Josh 'JJ LaWhore' Nixon joined I Exist he was used to playing to bars full of drunken death metal fans in Blood Duster and Pod People, and I doubt he had ever actually played a youth centre show before. I've since been told Josh played to 1000 kids at civic youth center in 1990, when I was only four years old, so what would I know. Over these years he has honed his sarcastic metal stage presence to a fine art, something which went over the heads of most the underage crowd. "Who's this old dude flashing the horns all the time?" Josh went home after this show, he doesn't usually tour with the band so it was cool for him to do these shows, he'll be playing the Queanbeyan show on the 19th of May.

Jake was nice enough to let a small child named Caed sing the "woman" lines in the song 'Temptress'.

Shinto Katana had two car crashes this day before the show, no one was hurt, but they were all pretty pissed off as you'd expect. This didn't affect their live show, playing as heavy as they usually do and getting more kids to mosh than any of the other bands.

Shai Hulud are some of nicest american's I've ever met, I haven't really met many americans, but they're definatley not arrogant rockstar stereotypes.

The first show at Hot Damn was great and this show was just as good, different crowd, different atmosphere and the audience was really into all the bands. Shai Hulud ended their set by telling us they would play a Miles Away cover, but then playing Linoleum by NOFX, funny guys.

During this show while some of the other bands were playing Aaron took some time to teach Adrian Kelly, Phantoms guitarist, how to play a bunch of the I Exist songs. Kelly was jumping in the van to come along to the Queensland shows and Aaron had a spare guitar so why not teach him a full set in one night and expect him to play two shows the next day. It was hilarious watching these two play un-amped electric guitars outside under some trees lit only by the moonlight. Immediately after the show we drove overnight to Queensland.

Before the show I Exist wandered around a bit in newtown and went to a guitar store, then played some frisbee. We didn't do much at all this day.

Jake took this photo

 Jarred took this photo

I Exist - Tour blog 1

Day1 by Jake Willoughby

So I got out of Canberra just in time. JJ LaWhore shared a magical bag session with me not too long before we left. The ride up was a study of truck driver signals and etiquette, there was some Big Business and Dr. Octagon.
Arriving in Oxford street in only two and-a-half hours, I congratulated LaWhore and we loaded in.
Never played at Spectrum, never been. It was alright for a nightclub venue, although the stage was really small. I'm glad we didn't have Al-Bro to fit as well.
Some drink cards where expended for the golden liquors of Mexico.

Shinto Katana

Shai Hulud

At the end of the Shai Hulud set they were going to play Bulldozed but then instead played Linoleum and I lost my tour pass as a result of being trampled. Now I'm probably going to have to pay to get in to my own shows. JJ is going to give me his after he goes home.
Tonight was not a party but instead a mellow hang at Jimmi Jimmi James'.
Paddy hasn't made the Hemplar Knights back patch yet.
Not keen to be driving to QLD tomorrow night.
-Jake Willoughby.

New I Exist merch

This is the second time I've been to Hot Damn, I find it really hard to shoot shows here, there's barely any room to set up my lights and finding a place to shoot from is a challenge. I clamped one light onto the back wall to the right of the drummer and had one on a stand stage left as far towards the front as possible. Most of the show i was shooting right in front of the left side of the stage, later I got told off for standing on one of the tables while taking photos. I Exist opened with a brand new song, one that's not even on the new album, they got a great reaction from the crowd. Shinto played and everyone moshed, and Shai Hulud were really really great. Some people had doubts about the new singer, but within one song it was obvious they were still Shai Hulud and that it was going to be a great set. Next is St Ives and an overnight drive to Queensland, followed by two shows in one day.
- John Hatfield