Tired Lion

The film Almost Famous has warped our senses a little bit of just what it’s like to tour as a rock band, and while it mightn’t always be the case, it seems for Tired Lion life matches quite closely to the Hollywood release.
“I remember we played a show in Brissie and we had to be at the airport by 5am, so we thought we probably shouldn’t sleep. It was one of the best shows at the Crowbar, and Luca Brasi was hanging out with the Violent Soho dudes and we were just like ‘OMG’,” lead singer Sophie Hopes says.
“So we ended up getting drunk, just hanging around and by the time we got home I think we literally got to close our eyes for 20 minutes before we had to leave for the airport.”
It seems that with each antic behind the stage, it’s matched equally in front of the crowd, and as the band develops their confidence performing, there’s soon to be no holding them back with the risks they’ll take. A gig in their hometown of Perth served as the first crowd-surf for Sophie, of what we’re sure will be many more to come.
“I don’t know what was in the air that night but it was definitely the best Perth crowd we’ve ever played to. They knew all the words to our songs and I kind of got the inspiration from being on tour with Luca Brasi – there were so many shenanigans that went on in the moshpit. They’d get people up crowd-surfing and I remember at one point in Tassie something from the roof fell down because there were two people crowd surfing. I kind of just felt in the moment and thought, ‘Yeah man, the Luca dudes can do it’, and so I just went for it,” she says.
With crowd-surfing mastered there have been attempts at other tricks, possibly not quite as successful as that time in Perth: “I always pretend I’m a rock star in the jam room, just to piss the boys off. I’ll be really silly and I jumped up on the bass drum and jumped off but my shoelace got caught on the kit and I fell over and hurt my wrist,” she says.
“As it was just before we were going away to Singapore all the guys were like, ‘You’re such an idiot man, you have to play guitar’. And I was pretending I was totally fine, but it was so sore. It healed but I don’t think I’ll be doing any crazy tricks because I need my bones to be in order.”
After witnessing Isabella Manfredi’s impressive performance side of stage at Groovin’ the Moo and soon to tour with the British India boys, there’s certain to be some more tricks for the four piece to pull out – perhaps just ones without the risk of broken bones.
Though there’s no tricks when Sophie and I speak about the upcoming EP, which as she reveals to me is called Figurines will be released in June and have a national tour to support it. Until then you can catch Tired Lion as they support British India.
When & Where: 170 Russell, Melbourne – May 29 & The Wool Exchange, Geelong – May 30
Written by Amanda Sherring