By Rod Whitfield
American gothic metalcore superstars Motionless in White have been to Australia a couple of times in recent years, for appearances on the Soundwave festival. In early to mid-December, they are bucking that trend, jumping on the massive ‘Big Ass’ Tour, which includes The Amity Affliction, A Day to Remember and The Ghost Inside and plays massive arenas across the nation. As much fun as playing Soundwave must be, main man Chris Motionless says he is very happy to be coming Down Under in a different format.
“We’re really excited for this one, because we’ve been playing Soundwave every time we’ve been to Australia,” he reflects, “so to experience something different to that is very welcome for us. We had a great time on Soundwave, but it was time for us to experience the clubs, or on this tour, the arenas!”
Playing huge concrete sporting and concert arenas will be another new experience for Chris and his band as well. “I can’t say I’ve had too much experience playing these massive massive arenas,” he admits, “we’ve played a few before, and it was cool, but not anything to this magnitude. So this will be new for us in general. But I can say we’re very much looking forward to it.”
Appearances on Soundwave and this coming arena tour are all feeding what Chris and the band’s true goal is, as far as playing in Australia is concerned.
“I think these tours will be very beneficial for helping set up what my ultimate dream for Australia is, which is to come and do a headlining tour in clubs for our fans out there.”
In the meantime, he is very happy with the line-up on this tour that his band is part of: “Yeah, it’s definitely ‘stacked’, I’ll say that!” He laughs.
Motionless is expecting a brief set for the band as an opener, somewhere around the 30 minute mark. “We’re pros now at cramming as many songs as we can into a short set. I’ve just learned how to shut the hell up onstage in between songs!” He laughs again.
The band’s third album, Reincarnate, has been out over a year now, and the band are still touring the world relentlessly behind it. That demand is a strong sign of the strength and staying power of an album that has been widely cited as a big return to form for the band.
“Yeah, it’s been by far the most positive release for the band,” he says, “a lot of the people who were kinda on the fence about us felt reassured in their fandom about our band, that were keeping things heavy and aggressive, which I think they might have thought we were wanting to gravitate away from, like a lot of other bands are doing now.”
Motionless tells us that this Australian tour is likely to be the swansong of the current tour behind Reincarnate, and that as of early next year they will be stepping back from the road to start formulating a follow-up.
“We’re actually using the Australian tour as our final tour of this run,” he reveals, “we’re doing a US headliner right now, then we’re going to go directly to the UK and do a headliner there. Then we’re flying directly to Australia from the UK.
“So we’re pretty much going to circle the globe in the latter half of this year, then we’re going take a nice long break to write and record a new record.”
In fact, work has actually already commenced, and some new songs for the next album are starting to take shape. “We’ve started with some parts here and there, and some full songs just being jammed out by a couple of guys in the band and myself, and everything feels really really good. Which is weird for me, because it usually takes me a while to get into the groove, and I often feel uncomfortable with where it’s at.
“But lately it’s been really positive, and I think that positivity will carry over onto the new record. We’re going to have a good time on this one for sure.”
‘Big Ass’ Tour Dates with The Amity Affliction, A Day To Remember, The Ghost Inside and Motionless In White
12 December – QANTAS Credit Union Arena, Sydney
14 December – Perth Arena, Perth
16 December – Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide
17 December – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
19 December – The Riverstage, Brisbane
20 December – The Riverstage, Brisbane