No frills, no gimmicks, just pure, unfiltered chaos. The Wonder Years are hitting Australian stages with one goal in mind – to blow the doors off every single venue they step into.
When asked about the coolest place he's ever been, The Wonder Years' frontman Dan 'Soupy' Campbell almost always gives the same answer, Australia. The country holds a special place in his heart, and he's making sure this tour is just as special for the fans."The thing that I can say kind of 'unifyingly' is that an Australian crowd really loves the band that they're there to see.
"Now, sometimes that band's not me, and I become collateral damage, but usually it's our fans, and they're f...ing hype as hell; but also kind of a hallmark of our fans, we found, is that they're also really caring, and they care for each other, they take care of each other, and it's just kind of a cool community."
To build the ultimate set list for this tour, Campbell took a different approach. Instead of sticking to the usual favourites, he threw it out to the fans on Instagram, asking them to drop their most-wanted songs.
"I wrote them all down, and then I started adding checkmarks for when people would say it another time. Now we are building a set out of that to see what songs people want to hear, what songs, like, I feel like there's some songs they don't even have to say, right? Like, no one has to say 'Play Came Out Swinging'."
For Dan, pre-tour routines aren't just a habit, they're a necessity, making sure his body is as ready as his voice, often hopping on an exercise bike to push through the physical toll of performing live.
By the time he steps under the lights, he's already battled through the burn, so when the first note hits, he's all in. "It's been a real game changer for me, because it's the only way that I feel like I can rehearse under similar conditions to a show, where I'm gonna be moving around, and I'll be jumping around the whole time, and I'm sweaty, and I'm off balance.
"When you're in rehearsal, you're just. . . you're standing there, and you're singing, and you're upright, and your posture is right, and your breath control is right, and when you get to the show, all that sh.t goes right out the f...ing window, right? Your brain is on fire.
"It feels like everyone's a little more connected to it; and I think the thing that the Australian fans are going to find is we've been sharpening, and especially over the course of the pandemic, we all kind of committed ourselves to be like, when we get a chance to come back, just be so f...ing undeniable, right?
"It's just been me on the f...ing exercise bike, my drummer just chopping out, like, we're just trying to get to a point where we're going to put on a show where you go, 'holy sh.t, they sound better than they did 15 years ago'.
"That's kind of the thing; we don't want to be one of those bands that wanes and gets worse, and you start seeing it, but you're like, 'ugh, it used to be real good'. I want to put on a show where you go 'damn, they're better. They're better today than the first time I saw them.'"
With a set featuring a relentless barrage of the songs fans love, played with the kind of energy that leaves the walls shaking and the crowd breathless, from the first note to the last, it's going to be all heart, all volume, and absolutely no holding back.
"It's a little bit a purist kind of thing, like a mindset. I think also too, we try to think about accessibility, and so when we do bring out lights, we're like, 'well, we can't have anything strobing, right?'.
"Like, for like light-sensitive people, we just try to make sure that if we do have a chance to bring out a light show, that it's not going to make it so someone then can't come to the show because they're light-sensitive.
"We've never really been one of those bands that's going like absolutely crazy with the strobing and moving fixtures and all that that sh.t. I think that for us, it's better if we just have an LD who knows the songs and can run the rig and is going to hit the cues at the right point and light the crowd up at the right point, and make them feel like they're a part of the show. That's a big production to us."
Dan has one last message for his Australian fans. "We missed you guys and we're coming back and we're trying to put together a set that's going to make you very excited based on what people were saying, and we're looking forward to playing the f...ing hell out of it. . . we're also going on tour with one of my favourite bands of all time in Joyce Manor.
"We're not going to let seven years go by between this one and the next one either."
The Wonder Years 2025 Tour Dates
Thu 27 Mar - The Tivoli (Brisbane)Fri 28 Mar - King St Bandroom (Newcastle)
Sat 29 Mar - Liberty Hall (Sydney)
Sun 30 Mar - Waves (Wollongong)
Wed 2 Apr - Altar (Hobart)
Fri 4 Apr - Northcote Theatre (Melbourne)
Sat 5 Apr - Lion Arts Factory (Adelaide)
Sun 6 Apr - Magnet House (Perth)
