Pennywise & Millencolin Go Down Memory Lane, Reveal Australian Tour Memories

Two punk rock icons, Pennywise and Millencolin, are heading to Australia for a massive run of shows this month. To celebrate the tour, the two bands have gone down memory lane, interviewing each other about their favourite or most memorable moments in Australia.

The co-headline tour begins at Waves in Wollongong this Saturday, 22 February, and continues at Newcastle’s Bar On The Hill (Sunday, 23 February), Sunshine Coast’s The Station (Tuesday, 25 February), Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall (Wednesday, 26 February), Sydney’s Enmore Theatre (Friday, 28 February), Adelaide’s Pirate Life Brewing Festival (Saturday, 1 March), Melbourne’s PICA (Sunday, 2 March), and Perth’s Metro City on Wednesday, 5 March.

No strangers to our shores, Pennywise played at Good Things Festival in 2023, while Millencolin performed at the festival in 2022. Both regular touring bands when it comes to visiting Australia, the pair also played sideshows alongside their Good Things appearances.

Ahead of their forthcoming tour, Pennywise bassist Randy Bradbury and Millencolin guitarist Mathias Färm have shared some thrilling tales of touring Australia, from Soundwave to spotting kangaroos, Big Day Out, being star-struck by Billy Corgan, and more.

Check out their tour stories below and purchase last-minute tickets to the tour via the Destroy All Lines website.

Randy Bradbury on his favourite/most memorable Australian tour stories

The first thing that springs to mind is when we would go out there for Warped Tour, or any tour for that matter, we would always usually go surfing. And it was great, there was usually a surf break within a half an hour of where we were playing, so we’d go surfing, especially Burleigh Heads and Snapper Rocks, places like that. There’s no better feeling than getting out of the water after a surf and then going to play a show that night.
Next up, there was a time when Fletcher [Dragge] picked up a small man and helicoptered him over his head on the Gold Coast. This was just at the hotel; he just walked up, picked this guy up and spun him around over his head - he just went and did it without warning. But the thing is, with Fletcher, everyone loves him. Actually, they’re scared to death in the moment, but then after it’s over, somehow, they love him. They laugh, and everyone thinks it’s funny and cool.
Another time we were there for Soundwave, there was a flight we had to take from Sydney to Perth, and somehow, I ended up in the back row in the middle seat next to Fletcher and a guy from Asking Alexandria. I’m stuck in the middle seat for five and a half hours, and Fletcher’s leaning on me, so I’m like: “...I’m just going to drink”. I got really, really drunk and made friends with the guy from Asking Alexandria. The middle seat is my worst nightmare. And even I don’t want to be that close to Fletcher for that length of time. I just drank beer on that flight.

When I used to drink, I’d drink beer because I could keep count of how much I’d had. I could drink and guzzle it, and then if I started feeling woozy or something, I could literally count how many I’d had and know if I needed water or something to eat - or just need to be done! That made it easy. When you drink mixed drinks, you have no idea how many you’ve had to get to where you are.
We did a festival a long time ago called the Falls Festival with Simon Daly. Simon had a little ranch, and we actually stayed on this little ranch and got to see a little bit of the outback while we were out there, which was awesome.
The food in Australia is great, too. We were in Brisbane once, and we ate with all of the guys in The Vandals. We would go out every night and drink and just have awesome meals all together when we could.
Another time, we played golf and there were kangaroos on the course, this was back on the Warped Tour. And it was the first time we’d seen kangaroos just free and running around. They were all over the greens, everywhere you’d be hitting the ball - they were just there!
And another time, we played on a boat in Sydney Harbour when we were here on Warped Tour; we rented a boat and played on it…and then the cops came and kicked everyone off the boat.
We’ve also gone to Rottnest Island with Suicidal Tendencies, and we saw the quokkas. I always see the guys that go and get photos with them holding koalas - but I’ve still never done that!

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Mathias Färm on his favourite/most memorable Australian tour stories

The first time we went here back in '96, I remember I watched a TV show about how dangerous it was in Australia with spiders and snakes. And then they said you should never go to Australia and sleep on the floor. And we got to Australia on the first tour and the first day, and we played a show. It's like, where are we going to sleep? On the floor? So we were like, I was super scared, but I guess, but we realized too that it wasn't that dangerous to sleep on the floor. I mean, otherwise, we wouldn't been doing it.
Back in 2003, we played the Big Day Out, and there were so many people. We played it in front of 50,000 people. It was the biggest show we had ever done. It was actually the first time we felt like we made it in a way.
I got a little bit starstruck when we played Good Things and Smashing Pumpkins played. And I went to an elevator and Billy Corgan was in the elevator, and I didn't know what to do. It was funny because I reacted in a way that I didn't think I would react. I was like, I wanted to say something to him, but I couldn't talk. And he just looked at me and just left the elevator.
I remember Warped Tour and we were on the long bus rides with the other bands. We were used to flying in between cities, but on this Warped tour, we were on buses. It was us and almost all the bands on that tour. I remember getting to the hotel in Coffs Harbour and getting ready to take a swim, but we couldn't go down to the beach. Someone had been eaten by a shark. But I remember it was so generic, what we hear on the news from Australia. And that was after a super long bus ride from Brisbane.
I remember when we released the Pennybridge Pioneers back in 2000; it was the first touring we did on that album. And also the first shows we played, because we had two-year break. So when we started that tour, I think it started in Perth, or it was, maybe not, maybe, but that was actually the first show we played for two years. On that album. And it was a huge thing for us. We had recorded this album with Mr. Brett [Gurewitz] from Bad Religion. He owned Epitaph, and we released it. The album debuted at number four in Australia, I think, and it went gold pretty fast, too. So, it was the start of a great journey.
When we got to Australia the first time back in 1996, it was us and No Fun At All. We were in Melbourne, I think, and we wanted to go to the beach. So all the Swedes went to the beach. We stayed on the beach for the whole day without any sunblock. And I got so burned from the sun, so I had blisters on my whole face, I had this big blister on my stomach, and I had to play barefoot because I had blisters on my whole feet. It was so, so terrible. And I remember it was so funny because everyone suffered for weeks. The tour was three weeks long, and after two weeks, I got better. Me and the drummer from No Fun At All went down to the beach and did it again. No sun block for half a day, and fucked up again. And then we went home. I had a fever, too. I just wanted to have a nice tan that I could show people when I go back home and that I've been to Australia.