Punks return older and a little wiser
Australian crowds - and venues - thought they had seen the last of Californian punks Guttermouth when what was supposed to be their final tour here wrapped up in 2013.
However, a realisation about the direction his life was heading and a run-in with Mexican police saw lead singer and founding member Mark Adkins join the rest of the five-piece outfit on a plane south.
This time around, they have Rockingham in their sights.
As to what prompted the return to touring in Australia, Adkins said a relationship breakdown.
"I've had a 27-odd year run with this band and then I had a girl who was trying to change me, and I was kind of suckered in by it to a certain extent," he said.
"When people try and change you - girlfriends and what have you - or you try and change a girl, it always backfires and blows up in your face."
The singer eventually found himself in Tijuana, Mexico, where things hit a low point and a call went out to drummer Alex Flamsteed to bail Adkins out of jail and get back on the road.
But returning to Australia was never going to be a simple affair.
Some East Coast venues were reluctant to book the outfit after a notoriously messy performance at the Ferntree Gully Hotel in Victoria during the 2013 tour.
Adkins shrugged off the negative reaction and said the media had blown the events of the last tour out of proportion.
"There's only one incident that happened down there," he said.
"Everyone has a bad day at the office and (Ferntree Gully) was our bad day at the office."
Guttermouth made their mark on the punk scene in the 1990s with albums such as Full Length EP (their debut), Musical Monkey and Teri Yakimoto.
The tongue-in-cheek, nothing-is-sacred attitude of the songs carries through to their raucous live shows.
Adkins said a surprise when playing throughout the US recently was the number of younger people in the crowd.
"We've actually got high school kids coming to our shows," he said. "And they're wearing Charged GBH (British punk band) shirts … and they're a real disgruntled bunch of young people, man … things just aren't rosy in the States like they once were."
Fans waiting for new music from Guttermouth won't be disappointed.
Adkins said there would be an exclusive Australian release to accompany the tour, featuring music recorded in Brisbane.
Cameron Myles
