Scott & Charlene’s Wedding are currently embarking on an absolutely massive tour known as Up The Guts – a slog that starts in Hobart and tears its way through the heart of Australia en route to Darwin.
One of our fave Melbourne bands, they’re joined on this adventure by some other great acts: Melbourne’s underground garage legends ScotDrakula, folk-punk upstart Ali E, melodic maestro Ben Wright Smith, and Jack, Jo & Friends (a new collaboration between members of The Pretty Littles and Big Scary) – a great lineup anywhere, let alone in the middle of the bush.
That’s the most exciting aspect of Up The Guts – taking the band on the road and delivering slabs of music to parts of Australia that often get overlooked, as well as experiencing the tour life like never before.
To give us an idea of just what it’s like trekking through the outback with guitar in hand, S&CW will be sending us updates on their travels whenever they can find a patch of internet out there in the wilderness.
They aren’t slowing down once they return from this massive quest, playing The Curtin in their hometown of Melbourne on August 26 and Sydney’s Volumes Festival on August 27, before heading to BIGSOUND in Brisbane on September 6-9.
They’ve just dropped the above single from their forthcoming album, due out on September 9, which makes for the perfect soundtrack to part one of Up The Guts with Scott & Charlene’s Wedding.
First day on the bus. We’re a band called Scott & Charlene‘s Wedding, currently 5 days into a 17 day trip from Hobart to Darwin. 17 days, 15 shows, 7,500 km. It’s a 17-seater bus with 17 persons. The facts speak for themselves – one hell of a trip!
The gentlemen in the bottom left of frame who just cracked a fresh called Coopers is James Clarke, our driver and one-third of Up the Guts organising crew. He is very tired today.
We crash landed at the Brisbane Hotel in Hobart for the first show of the trip. It was absolute madness.
This is the next morning, halfway between Hobart and Launceston on the Federal Highway. Snow in Tassie!
Craig and Jack have a lot of pent up anxiety from playing in a band together for so long.
Here are two big gentlemen in front of a very small bus. We’re all hoping at the moment that this thing will take us all the way up the middle to Darwin, but we are not quite sure yet.
The bus gets a little weird after a long day of driving and playing rock ‘n’ roll. I think this was taken as we were about to board the Spirit of Tasmania back to the mainland.
The bus got stuck in a long queue while waiting to the board, and everyone had to jump out for a toilet stop behind the bushes of a ferry carpark. This did not impress Tasmanian ferry officers, and we were promptly ordered to pour all beverages out before boarding the boat.
Back to business. Taken last night at the Golden Vine Hotel in Bendigo, this show was an absolute ripper! Things looked grim early on, with the entire audience being made up of band members, but by the time we took the stage there was some serious dancing happening.
Locals took over as soon as we finished, commandeering instruments for an all-night jam that is up there with some of the greatest in rock history.
That’s part one done, but hopefully we’ll be checking in with them soon!
