Hi everyone. Haven't talked in a while. Thought I would drop everyone a quick hello from Australia! For those of you that aren't aware I am currently down here playing a handful of acoustic dates before jetting back to play Bamboozle, South Africa then Warped tour. To all our fans in South Africa, I am very excited to finally make it down to your wonderful country. Should be a blast, According to Chris, in addition to the rock shows, I guess we have been offered the opportunity to go cage diving with Sharks, sleep in a tree house on a safari while wild animals roam around us as well as roll around with penguins on the beach, sounds like a fun adventure to me. See you all soon! Spread the word.
As for Australia the shows have been incredible! The show in Sydney sold out, the show in Melbourne was very close to sold out, Adelaide was great as well and Brisbane was tonight. Have been hanging out with my friend Johann who was kind enough to bring me down here, he has been a great host and just an all around good guy. Thanks to all of the people who have made it out to the shows! You have made it a awesome tour! We will likely be back with the full band later this year once the record is released, stay tuned for dates... and yes, we promise we will do our best to include Perth. ;) Anyone in Tasmania on here? We would like to do a Tasmania show as well as New Zealand again when we come back down. So please talk to promoters and demand The Ataris in your area! We will do our best to make it happen.
So now for a fun story from the tour....
Johann and I were waiting in the Melbourne airport for our flight to Sydney. Some massive thunderstorms rolled in so they temporarily grounded all flights at the airport. The power flashed on and off a few times as well. Rain was flooding down outside the huge floor to ceiling windows, thunder was roaring, the wind was forcibly blowing away anything in sight that was not tied down. Was overall pretty sketchy. They made an announcement to the extent of "For those of you watching out the window to the right, the plane you currently see making an emergency landing is due to "someone being ill" yeah I'll buy that one. After about an hour and a half goes by there seems to be a small break in the weather so they announce they are finally going to let us board the plane. After quickly boarding the plane, We immediately begin pulling out of the gate and taxing, the captain announces that there is another huge storm system heading in from the west so we have to get out now as the next huge storm will be in the area in about fifteen minutes time. Things looked pretty fucking bleak outside. The sky was filled with huge black billowing clouds, lightning flashing everywhere in the distance, definitely not pretty at all. Every plane oviously had the same idea as there were six other aircraft in front of us. We wait several minutes on the runway for all of the other planes ahead of us as, all the while I patiently watch the deathly abyss in the distance rapidly move closer towards us. I then recall the captain warning us to strap in as it was gonna be a rough one. At godspeed we then begin our rapid climb straight towards the black horizon off to the west.

...Now people let me tell you I have probably taken at least well over a hundred or more flights in my lifetime. I have had some intense experiences, some that make me laugh at myself, (the window casing and arm rests physically falling out in Argentina, the old 1970's refurbished cuban plane we flew in Italy, the plane that made a unscheduled stop in Uraguay at some tiny shack of an airplane hangar, as we watched a man and his wife in furs slowly waltz off the plane. plenty of insane turbulence that rivaled the most insane of amusement park thrill rides (and John our old guitarist who truly hates flying and was likely along for some of those rides would I'm sure gladly vouch for some of those odd and interesting stories), All of this shit, I look back and laugh. but nothing, I repeat NOTHING has ever even come close to what was about to happen.

We descend straight into the eye of this massive storm, the plane begins thrashing about dropping hundreds of feet at a time, lighting crashing violently around us, people are screaming, and let me tell you, these aren't just normal people we are talking about here. These are Australians mind you. These are the people who brought you a crazy guy who would wrestle a crocodile to the ground, smiling like the village idiot as he told you fun wonderful facts about the animal that could easily snap his hand straight off. These are the people who can drink twenty beers and then kindly ask "So what would ja' guys like ta do nixt? Fancy grabbing a drink somewere else??" Not even remotely phased. These people are superhuman. But fuck me, everyone was fucking freaked!! And the best was only yet to come.

We must have been nearly twenty thousand feet in the air when suddenly lighting strikes the fucking plane! This is one of those moments you see on all the air disaster shows that I so guiltily love to watch, but now, I'm like oh yeah... I'm in that show. sweet. not really awesome.
The plane begins falling rapidly, I am grasping Johann's leg for dear life, if it wasn't for the meds I likely would've probably pissed myself. I felt the plane shake and then saw this bright, blinding flash all around, The plane was being tossed about like mad, climbing then falling again, people clutching onto their seats, trembling, children screaming, holding on for dear life.
At that point I feel as if I am a character in the movie "Almost Famous" and suddenly I would look back and hear Jimmy Fallon's charcater start rambling about the time he randomly hit a man in Dearborn , Michigan and kept on going, or the drummer would suddenly shout out "I'm gay!" but nope, man, this was the real shit.

Obviously, I'm here typing you this right now so as fucked as things were, I can now sit here and laughingly just add it to my collection of one more interesting story in this crazy journey that I call my life. But man, no matter which way I tell this story, I don't think I could ever do it justice, It was definitely one of the longest moments in my life.

I think the best part of it all was after we land, Johann and I were waiting at the baggage claim, I personally still slightly in shock, thinking "Man, did that shit really just go down?"
I turn around and hear this old australian guy on his mobile phone, straight outta the bush, funny hat and all, in this thick australian country accent calling his wife... "Honey, yea I just had one of the craziest experiences of my life yea... Our plane got struck by lightning! yea... it was crazy... Now what terminal are you picking me up at?" Literally, right onto the next thought, Not even phased. These people truly are super human. God bless Australia.

As for me. Now I head back to the sates and finish vocals for the new Ataris album, See you all soon. Somewhere in the world.

As for you... If you have a friend or loved one in a touring rock band, let him or her know that you do truly appreciate the lengths they go to, to come accross this great land and bring the rock to you HA! Much love from the road.

-Kris. / The Ataris