subsonic eye just finished their US tour.
The Singaporean indie-rock quintet crossed the United States in June, playing in California, Oregon, Washington, New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. The tour followed the Live movement concert at the Gateway Theater in Singapore, which also featured artists like Sobs and Cosmic Child.
While away, the young prodigies were also featured on the Seattle Public Radio station KEXP‘s Live series, marking their second time on KEXP, but their first time performing live at the studio. The group played three songs: ‘bug in spring‘, ‘Suction‘, and ‘WORK‘, as well as shared their story and work so far, such as their critically acclaimed album ‘nature of things‘, and revealed that their upcoming songs address the band members’ acclimatization to professional life.
As Subsonic Eye brought their heartwarming magic to various locations across the United States, they also made sure to tell their memories. The band shares with us photographs and small covers from their travels, allowing us to live vicariously through their shots and learn more about their first US tour.
Wahidah, Dan, Spencer and Lucas reached LA first; Jared couldn’t come until a day later because he didn’t have enough days off. LA is such a beautiful city, and the weather was amazing. Not all of our gear arrived at the airport and Spencer left his wallet on the plane so day one was a mess. Luckily Dan’s guitars and Lucas’ drums arrived the next day, but Spencer’s bass never came.
The first of many Mexican dishes we have eaten in the US…it’s crazy.
Our friends from young lovers brought us to The last library in Los Angeles and it was great. So many great records and books. Spencer bought a bicycle touring book.
Jared has finally reached LA! We also ate I jump for the first time and wow, just wow.
Soundcheck for our first show! We played at this place called The echo. We didn’t manage to take any photos for the show itself as Zasha (who took these photos) was busy running the merchandising booth. It was crazy how many people came to talk to us afterwards; we even saw a guy wearing a cosmic child shirt (one of our best friends). Definitely a good start to the tour.
With the first part of the LA show, young lovers! Super nice guys, we love them so much. We owe them a lot because they allowed us to ship our big box of goods to them first from Singapore, so we didn’t have to take it on the plane with us. They also introduced us to the openings of our show in San Francisco: Wander!
Along the road to San Francisco. Surreal views. Dan plays GTA 5 a lot and he couldn’t believe how much the game captured the place.
Much of the tour is just that…
and that… we’re all under 25, so we weren’t allowed to rent a 7-seater. We had no choice but to cram 6 people into a 5 seater car and try to efficiently stow our gear and bags in the trunk as best we could. We lived like this for 2 weeks.
San Francisco, baby!
Our concert in San Francisco was the same day we arrived. We played at this place called mortar brick, and it was awesome. The opening groups, Wander and Fast Fiction were really good. We talked to lots of people and everyone was so nice.
With Wander, and our good friend Ishan on the far left! He filmed our entire set on VHS and we had never seen a VHS camcorder before. He also recommended many cool places for us to check out for the next cities.
The next day we went to Twin Peaks. It was surreal. You can see all 5 of us at the top of the hill if you zoom in.
Next to Lucas is Zasha! We like it very much. She came with us to help with the merchandising, driving and documentation of much of the tour.
The drive to Portland was beautiful. All the lush greenery just popped out of nowhere.
The AirBnB we stayed at in Portland was our favorite, but unfortunately we only had time to stay for a few hours because after the show we had to fly straight to Seattle.
Portland Show! For concerts in the USA, you have to bring your own backline (drums, amps), unlike in Singapore where the venues provide the equipment. Our opening game in Portland was cigarette candy, a solo act. We couldn’t afford to rent equipment, so we posted an Instagram story asking who could let us borrow drums and amps. Luckily 2 super nice guys, Kellen and Justin, reached out and helped us. We are very grateful to you.
Right after our show in Portland, we drove 4 hours at night to Seattle. We wanted to arrive early so we could get enough sleep for the KEXP session, which was filmed quite early. None of us could believe it was real.
Right after the KEXP session, we played at this place in Seattle called The Sunset Tavern with math/emo group cursed league. Super nice guys, we told ’em check it out Forests.
From Seattle we flew to New York for our next show. We were hungover after celebrating KEXP the night before.
We weren’t able to take many photos for our show in New York, but it was probably our busiest and most favorite show. We couldn’t believe how many people there were. Our merchandise sold out that night.
We stopped at this music store called Atomic Guitar Works. Spencer’s bass never came, so he went ahead and bought a new one! No regrets.
Philadelphia was our favorite city. We played in this room called Johnny Brenda, with one of our favorite bands, 2nd year. So crazy to play with them, they were really awesome!
On the way to Washington… Many of our meals were like this. We didn’t want to leave our car alone in case it got broken into, so we took the food and ate in the parking lot.
Washington was probably our loudest show. Our early openers had to pull out, which also meant we had no drums and amps to borrow. I posted another post on Instagram asking who could help us. mark of Ultimate Overshare reached out and said his group could let us borrow their gear, and I told him they might as well be first! Really great guys.
Our last concert in Boston was sold out! We played in this cafe inside Berklee College of Music. We met this couple there who told us their wedding song was our song “Tired Club”. We didn’t originally plan to play this, but after he told us, we had to. It was so crazy to hear that.
With the opening of Boston, addie! They were super nice to us and had GREAT GUITAR TONE.
And IT’S A WRAP!!!
Listen to Subsonic Eye’s latest album, Nature of Things, now.
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