CALIBAN

When fast-footed cymbal-punisher Patrick Grün first traveled to Australia, it was on the 2006 Gigantour on a bill that included Megadeth, Soulfly and Arch Enemy. Playing three massive shows over four nights, his most vivid memories of the time were of staring outside the window of a tourbus or aeroplane with his bandmates. And while to you or I this may seem like a great way to spend time, Patrick hoped for a more tourist-based adventure. I guess I’m just lucky, I’ve already been to the Big Prawn AND Australia Zoo, so I have no desire to see much more of the country.

“It was a very nice tour, it was very good for us to play in front of so many kids,” he says, as I make a note of how weird it is to hear the word ‘nice’ describing a heavy metal mega tour. “Unfortunately, it [the timetable] was so strict that we hadn’t the chance to see any cities or sites that we wanted to. So when I talk to people about going to Australia and they ask ‘how was it?’, I say (changes voice to sound pre-prepared) ‘it was like London, Munich, Berlin…” he concludes with a laugh.

No doubt Patrick will have his trusty portable video camera at the ready for Caliban’s first headlining tour to Australia, as he has done in the past frequently on tours around Europe. Posted with haste onto their MySpace and official website, CalibanTV offers fans an added perspective of the band that would not be readily obvious from listening to the music, or even seeing them live. Filming life on the road captures the usual shenanigans you would expect from five young men in cramped quarters (crude jokes and unwanted odours), but seeing the band helpless as two Russian shows are cancelled provides moments of rare honesty you may not get from every artist. According to Patrick, that’s exactly how they want it to be. The footage, that is. Not the cancelled gigs.

“I was thinking about how you, not entertain, but show the people more of Caliban…you go to a show, you see a band onstage performing, maybe get a signing session but that’s it,” he explains. “I wanted to let people feel more part of Caliban, to see what’s really going on. It’s not always ‘being a rockstar’ because it’s not always the best thing.”

“We want to show how it is in reality. Cancelled shows, how we act in private situations, how we travel…what’s going on around ‘the music thing’.”

And just in case you were wondering, when Caliban finally performed in Moscow it was to a packed house of teenagers (ditching their expressionless socialist ideals and losing their shit) in a luxurious performance hall. Patrick proclaims to the camera moments before walking onstage, that “today, we make some music”. They make some music, get back on a godforsaken bus in the freezing night and move onto the next town sans sightseeing. Because there’s no Big Prawn in Russia. I’m still getting over the fact that Ivan Drago isn’t a real boxer.

CALIBAN play an all ages show at the Princess Theatre on Wednesday Aug 13 and an 18+ at Club 299 the night after. The band’s sixth album, The Awakening, is out now through Roadrunner Records.

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