Thundamentals Share Their Most Viral Moments

Baggage BS 

In 2014 we were supporting Hilltop Hoods on their Cosby Sweater tour when we found ourselves at the centre of an international news event. 

We were on a flight waiting to take off from Sydney airport, and our seats just happened to be in a position where we could see a baggage handler (or mishandled, as it turned out) loading everyone’s luggage onto our plane. 

We watched in disbelief as the handler literally tossed our instruments which we had labelled as ‘fragile’, roughly from a metre or so up onto a conveyor belt. 

As you do when you witness an employee of a huge multinational business taking liberties with your gear, we whipped out a mobile and caught the numbnuts in question red-handed. 

We posted the video on our socials before we took off for our flight, hoping that our instruments would still be in working condition for our show that night. 

By the time we landed our post had blown up, and over the coming days, the video received millions of views with the incident being picked up by a myriad of media outlets around the world. Luckily our gear wasn’t too badly damaged, and we were still able to do our show that night before carrying out repairs. 

We were offered money by multiple outlets to do interviews and exposés, which we declined. We also came out publicly saying that we didn’t want the handler in question to lose his job. Old mate might just have been having a bad day. Poor fella. 

One Night Stand 

In 2017 we were invited to perform as part of Triple Js ‘One Night Stand’ concert in Mount Isa. We were stoked to be on a stacked bill with the likes of Tash Sultana, The Smith Street Band and Fatman Scoop, who we managed to convince to come out and do a cameo during our set, haha! 

Anyway, the gig was a vibe, and we decided to go out to the pub afterwards for a couple of celebratory bevies. While we were waiting in line for our chicken schnittys who comes waltzing into the watering hole but the federal member for Kennedy, Bob Katter. 

Now to be fair, we’d had a couple at this point, but one of the fellas in the band heads towards Katter and sparks up a jovial convo. I’m not sure if he even realised that our bandmate had pulled out his mobile and started filming their conversation but let’s just say that Mr Katter was very candid in his opinions about people of the Muslim faith. For a person in his position to be expressing such controversial and, quite frankly disturbing views so openly was shocking. Our friend decided to post the video on his Facebook. 

The post was soon picked up by various media outlets in Australia and across the world. 

We pretty much retreated back to our hotel as our friend had started to receive death threats online, and maybe it was paranoia, but it felt like there was a real sense of danger in the air that night. Bob Katter was a huge deal in those parts, and I don’t think the locals took too kindly to us exposing him and his views to the world. 

The next morning, as we were waiting to make our escape from Mount Isa, the tension was broken by the comic relief of Fatman Scoop, who came bouldering and spluttering his way into the hotel lobby saying, “I just swallowed a fly man”! Surreal.  

Formula 1 Raps 

In 2019 we had the good fortune of meeting the icon that is Australian Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo. Riccardo had posted a video of him rapping along to a verse from our Like A Version of Matt Corby’s Brother, which was ironically THE viral moment that sparked our whole career. 

Once we caught wind of Dan’s post, we slid into his DMs and said that if he ever wanted to come and check out a show to let us know. 

It turns out that we would be playing a gig in his hometown of Perth around the same time that he was due to be back visiting his family for Christmas. 

And so it was that Daniel Ricciardo came through with 5 of his mates to kick it backstage. During the hang, I was trying to convince him to jump up on stage and perform the verse he had posted online. He wasn’t too keen at first, and I just couldn’t understand his trepidation. I said to him, “Mate, you literally have the most psycho job in the history of mankind, trust me, you got this”! 

He was watching the set from the side of the stage, and when it came time to perform the verse, I looked over at him, and he gave me a look like ‘I’m ready’.

To his credit, he came out and did his thing, and the hometown crowd were loving it! 

Daniel Ricciardo = Formula 1 driver / Aus Hip Hop royalty! Such a legend. 

You can stream their new E.P, All This Life, here and look at tickets to their new tour here.