Children Collide is still one of Australia's finest rock bands, known for pummelling, raucous live shows - but what happens when on the cusp of a comeback album launch tour, all live music is cancelled across the Earth?
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It's taken more than a year, but they're finally back on the road, finally getting in front of crowds in Melbourne last week.
It'll be Ballarat's turn this Sunday, with the band taking over Volta with support act Badgers to launch new single 'Trampoline'.
Frontman Johnny Mackay said it was "surreal" being able to play again, but even the first Melbourne shows weren't sure things.
"We didn't even know those ones were going to happen, with the lockdowns last week and (bassist) Chelsea and I were in Sydney," he said.
"It wasn't until the Wednesday we knew we were flying the next day, and we had to move all our rehearsals as well - we had to rehearse the night we flew in, then the next day, then a soundcheck and two sets - it was like moving house all weekend."
Punters are hungry for live music, he said, though people are still getting used to how live music will work.
"The start of the set, everyone's sort of standing back not sure what to do, but by the end it's going crazy, and our sets are designed like that, to build through the whole thing," he said.
"It was our first show since February 8 last year, when we played a bushfire benefit, we hadn't done a show since."
The band toured hard for several years, before breaking up after releasing their third album.
A couple of reunion shows popped up in 2019, getting fans revved up for a new album.
With a new bassist, Chelsea Wheatley, they were able to release a couple of singles and plan a massive return tour, with festival bookings, but then the coronavirus struck.
Last week's Melbourne shows were described by one reviewer as "welcoming back old friends", and Mackay said it was weird how similar it all feels.
"It's amazing how much you slip straight back into it - being back on stage feels exactly the same, I always had so much fun with the crowd," he said.
"There was always a smartarse who came to our shows so I have a bit of back and forth with them and that happened the other night in both sets.
"Coming back to places like Ballarat, where it was always such a wild cool time, that's going to be exciting too."
During the band's hiatus, Mackay performed as Fascinator, a superb one-man psychedelic act that echoed cult favourites like TOBACCO.
"I've always done all kinds of music, but I just happened to get known in more circles for Children Collide," he said.
"I think every artist is a 360 degree human being and explores in all directions.
"But to bring this back and do it again, (former bassist) Heath gave us his blessing - he's doing a vintage store on the Central Coast with his girlfriend - so to get Chella in, Ryan went off and did his own project called Pearl that he sings and plays guitar in, and it's been really nice having three people in the room who all front their own other projects, it reduces the tension and pressure because everyone's got their own things they're also focused on."
The new album is ready to roll, he added, and there should be more dates as the launch approaches.
"For a band like us where our main thing is playing live, we're known as a live band, and it solidifies what we do being a live band, it's just been hard to put out songs," he said.
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"We put out a single last year, 'Funeral For a Ghost', we couldn't tour it, and it just felt wrong.
"There's a whole album, it feels way more like our early stuff, harking back to The Long Now and EPs before that - it's probably my favourite record we've made.
"I felt after Monument we hadn't finished, I still had songs floating around in my head, and I kept writing more over the years - eventually we had more than enough for an album, and here we are."
Tickets for Children Collide's show at Volta on February 28 are on sale through Eventbrite.
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