Australian rock royalty, The Butterfly Effect are currently undertaking a massive regional tour celebrating 21 years since the release of their debut album, 'Begins Here'.
This tour is – quite literally – for the fans. An online poll was created where audiences voted for which regional locations the band would visit. When we get drummer Ben Hall on the phone, they've just wrapped up their first show of the tour in Cairns, and have driven to an extremely wet Townsville. "Extremely wet is quite possibly an understatement," Ben emphasises. "On the way, quite a few roads were closed and there was a fair bit of flooding. So I get the joy of piecing together whether or not this [gig] is going to happen this evening, which is excellent."
Driving from town to town is a flashback to the early days of touring for the band. On this tour they've returned to their roots and they're playing smaller venues than they're used to. "It's reminiscent of what we would have done back in 2001, 2002, 2003 and so on," Ben says.
"Our manager had a philosophy that you need to do six weeks, two to three times a year and just get on the road and go. It was much easier [back then] because all I had was a mobile phone, pretty much. It was almost easier to be on the road than be at home and paying somewhere to rent."
It's not the first time the band has toured 'Begins Here' in full. In 2024 the band toured the album nationally to massive success. The fact the band is still even active 20 years later isn't something Ben could have predicted. "Last year's tour was the biggest selling tour that we've ever actually done. Twenty years later that's very surprising.
"As a young bloke I was like 'you'll do it for five years and hopefully have some success and then move to whatever else because people will stop liking you', but that's not how it works, at least in our scenario. So we're very, very fortunate that people are still coming out. We still get out to the merch tent every night and meet everyone. It's nice to meet second generations of families that are coming now as well."
Although album anniversary shows are commonplace in the current touring circuit, Ben wasn't so sure of the idea; yet he was quickly convinced after performing the album live in rehearsals. "Initially when the idea was floated I was dead against it.
"I thought it was cliché and it might have even suggested we had nothing else to offer, but then once we actually started rehearsing it was almost like opening a diary and reading your thoughts from 2002 – when we recorded it – to 2003.
"So many parts I had forgotten about and never listened to after they were recorded, because we hadn't played a lot of the songs until this tour. There's so many moments where we go, 'oh yeah, I did alright there as a young bloke', then other moments where you go 'what were you thinking!? Did you actually try?'. It is literally the album from start to finish, so bringing it to life took a fair while to pull together; and now, I love it. I think it's awesome."
For Ben the album takes him back to a time of innocence, when the path ahead was unknown. It was a time when a band that was "little bit naive" was driven by nothing else but the desire to play music together and write good songs.
"What I like about it is it's a reminder of how we weren't trying, which might sound weird, but once you have success, then more success, not more success in terms of like riches, but just keeping [the success]. Once you get to play music in front of people, it's very intoxicating and especially if you're touring the world and that sort of thing.
"You start a band because you like playing music and you like the music that you write, that process for us was very fortunately really quite quick. We did the EP ['The Butterfly Effect'] and triple j grabbed it and then ['Begins Here']. By the time this album was released it had gone gold and we were doing bigger shows and then all of a sudden you realise you don't want to lose this thing that you've got.
"So it changes your mindset. You're more focused on the way that you want it to be. Initially when no one cares it's just the three of us in the room doing what we do. You're really doing it for the most original purposes that you ever would. You're not writing music for anyone else. You're writing it for the three of you to come out and go 'oh sh.t that sounds great'."
Although they've made an iconic impact in Australian rock music, the band are performing on tour and then going back to their day jobs. It's the reality of the modern day industry, but it's a lifestyle Ben prefers compared to being a full-time rockstar.
"I think that, after 'Begins Here' came out 21 years ago, that's when we went from working jobs to full-time music. It wasn't by any means a luxurious lifestyle, we earned $400 bucks a week on average, we would tour and not take money at the end of the tour. Just $400 a week, that would be our wage. Even then you still couldn't get a great deal with $400 a week.
"In hindsight, I think [going full-time] probably was the wrong decision. All it did was mean that the band was the only way we were making money. It puts a great deal of pressure on the unit itself. . . the output needs to be up, there needs to be constant touring, constant gigging. Whereas, if we hadn't done that, maybe we could have taken more breaks and gone 'I'm tired, I need some time off'.
"Like I said about the writing of the record, at that point we were all still working so it's a completely different mindset. I much prefer this one right now where you can do this as a passion, something that we love, but then when it finishes we all go back to our other jobs and we're grateful for both."
The Butterfly Effect 2025 Tour Dates
Thu 6 Feb - Kings Beach Tavern (Sunshine Coast)Fri 7 Feb - Racecourse Hotel (Ipswich)
Sat 8 Feb - SOPO (Gold Coast)
Sun 9 Feb - Hoey Moey (Coffs Harbour)
Thu 13 Feb - Drifters Wharf (Central Coast)
Fri 14 Feb - Waves (Wollongong)
Sat 15 Feb - Panthers Penrith
Sun 16 Feb - Dee Why RSL (Sydney)
Thu 20 Feb - Beer Deluxe (Albury)
Fri 21 Feb - Torquay Hotel (Torquay)
Sat 22 Feb - Village Green (Melbourne)
Sun 23 Feb - Pier Hotel (Frankston)
Thu 27 Feb - Settlers Tavern (Margaret River)
Fri 28 Feb - Prince Of Wales (Bunbury)
Sat 1 Mar - Freo.Social (Fremantle)
Sun 2 Mar - Loop (Perth)
Thu 6 Mar - Theatre Royale (Castlemaine)
Fri 7 Mar - The Setts (Mildura)
Sat 8 Mar - Beer & BBQ Fest (Mt Gambier)
Sun 9 Mar - Bridgeway Hotel (Adelaide)
Fri 14 Mar - Discovery (Darwin)
