Brisbane psych-rockers The Belligerents will join Boo Seeka, a secret headliner and more at Bad Friday 2018 in Sydney.
The band is excited to kick off the Easter long weekend at the Sydney festival. According to bassist Konstantin 'Kon' Kersting, every act on the line-up is so good “you can’t really go wrong.
“There’s a bunch of people playing that I’m really keen to see. I remember seeing Boo Seeka when I was over in the UK once. It was a really late-night set and I was pretty drunk, but I remember liking it.”
The Belligerents have been riding the wave of their debut album release since September last year and had a great time on the subsequent national tour. “I don’t think there was ever any pressure [to release the album], because the songs were quite old by the time they came out, so we already kind of knew them inside out,” Kon says.
"As soon as you’ve got a couple of shows under your belt, it’s really, really fun... We try to be relaxed and have as much fun as possible when we play.”
The same approach applies off stage as well. According to Konstantin, it’s their drummer White Stag who usually provides the comic relief on tour. “He’s always the star of the show,” Kon says.
“One time, Stag lost the ‘odds’ game and had to cover himself in margarine, like, his entire body. It was pretty rank, but it was so funny; we were all in stitches… He could not get it off... He had four showers and was like: ‘My pores are sticky!’”
More recently, the band has teamed up with Alex Lahey for the 2018 Summer Sessions tour, playing a bunch of free gigs in coastal towns on the east and west coasts.
Konstantin says the shows have been going really well. “Alex and her band are legends, and people have been turning up - a lot, actually,” he says.
“Everybody seems to be in a mood to party and to actually listen to the music, which is really good.”
It took the Belligerents eight years to perfect their first, full-length offering, in all it’s synthesized glory. So it comes as some surprise that the band hopes to release a second record by the end of the year. “We’ll hook you up with some new music!” Kon says.
“There’s probably about 20, 30 songs maybe floating around? We’ll wait until we have a few more and then narrow it down… and then jump back into the studio and record it.”
