Tim's Patreon Tour Blog (April 13, 2025) (Patreon)

Dear Ne Obluminati,

I sit here presently, on a plane to San Francisco, USA, in deep anticipation of another big adventure for NeO and so thought I'd share some reflections on what's the come. It’s April 13 and we’re 4 days out from the first show of our first shows of 2025 after a few months back home in Australia.

What awaits us is:

* 19 shows as part of Chaos & Carnage across USA & CANADA.

* 2 co-headline shows with Fleshgod Apocalypse in cities we’ve never played before (Fresno, OKC)

* 3 headline shows in smaller cities (also that we’ve never played before (Baton Rouge, Omaha & El Paso)

* 2 special EXUL/Citadel shows in Monterey and Mexico City &

* 1 festival in Guadalajara, MX with Sabaton and other very cool bands!

This makes up 27 shows with a few different versions of set lists and types of shows. Which is a bit different to most tours where we are generally playing the same shown each night.

The start of a NeO tour is a bit like the Avengers assembling from different parts of the globe, but without the superpowers…haha (Though maybe just to make you feel something with what we create!). Martino flies in from Italy, Benji from France, James is doing the short trip from Chicago and Matt, Dan & myself fly in from Melbourne, Australia. We also have with us on this tour our trusty Tour manager/Sound engineer Melo, who flies in from Portugal and we are bringing across our EU merch manager, Ronnie, from France as well. We're definitely a nice and interesting picture of a modern multi-cultural community and there are often many jokes and fun about each of ours quirks and differences that arise from the culture of our home land.

Because it’s a support tour and so budget is a bit tighter we’re traveling in a bandwagon instead of a bus which means that this group (8) as listed is then max we can fit on board. With that in mind we are sharing our lighting engineer with Fleshgod Apocalypse which I’m sure will work out well. This also means that the luxury of having any additional crew such as stage tech/manager is out and so unlike our last EU tour, we’re back to lugging our gear around ourselves this time. Which to be honest, is fine considering most shows we are playing a 40min set. The amount of energy for a two hour headline show is very different and so the ability to carve out proper rest and recovery is so important to ensure we can be at our best each night. For a tour like this where the show is a shorter it’s a bit more realistic to just manage doing most things ourselves except for sound, lights and merch.

One thing I’m looking forward to on this tour is the extra free time after we play which you don’t get on headline shows. This will give me and the other guys a bit more time to catch up with friends and see the city we’re playing in. Having said that, being on stage quite early and the show being done by 7pm most nights will definitely be a big change in rhythm. I can’t eat much in the 2-3 hours before performing as otherwise it impacts my voice. So depending on when lunch Is, how much to eat then and working out when I need to eat a bit more in the afternoon -to ensure I’m not hungry just as the show is set to begin- is just one small element to navigate in the first week of this tour. Then after we perform it will be trying to pack up as quickly as we can and then hopefully catch some of Fleshgod Apocalypse (who I’m a huge fan of) and some dinner. After that, each night it will be sometimes catching the other bands (Dying Fetus and Cradle), or going out to see the city, or maybe catch up with a friend, get some management work done, or just have a rest where needed. Each tour has a rhythm that is familiar but slightly different and this one I’m sure will be similar in that way.

This tour also marks the first tour with James as an official member of the band, which to be honest doesn’t really change much when it comes to life on the road seeing that has been the norm for us the last couple years. James has become a good friend, and is a real professional when it comes to his vocal. I was instantly impressed by his consistency of performance when he started touring with us and it’s going to be nice to give him a big hug when I see him in San Francisco. He’s spent years working at his craft and thoroughly deserves the chance to be part of what we’ve been building all these years. I’m excited for it.

In the immediate term, the reason I’m sitting here on this plane by myself and not with Matt & Dan is twofold. We are rehearsing for one day on the 16th in Oakland, so the rest of the guys are mostly flying in on the 15th the day before. A bunch of our gear has been sitting in Mexico since November however and so I thought it was important for me to arrive a day early (it’s now been shipped and is at the hotel waiting for me to collect it) so I can check it all over just to be safe. That way I can get it up and running and test it out & set up the backing track files (which have extra string sections etc.) for this set list in advance. Then when we have our one rehearsal day we can limit the chances of any tech issues delaying our time.

So that meant I was going to fly in on the 14th. BUT, being a big basketball fan, I saw that the team I have followed for many years, Golden State Warriors, are playing their final game of the regular season today (13th). The chance to see that and be there in person I couldn’t pass up. So before the busyness oft he tour kicks off, I start this trip with a fun day off for which I’m super excited. This also gives me some extra time in San Francisco, which for those that don't, was where I lived way back in 1990-93. So I might even try and visit my old house and I've also got booked in lunch with my childhood violin teacher who I try and see sometimes when I am in town also. So it should be a really nice way to start the trip. It's always very hard leaving family, but once I land and the new adventure starts I always manage to settle in pretty quickly thankfully.

Sometimes on tour I find it hard to film lots of video content due to requiring plenty of vocal rest in between shows, especially in the first week or two of the tour. So I’ve decided to prioritise more written blog style content like this which I think allows me to share some different insights compared to the videos we share (and still will).

Are there any particular things you’d like to me to talk about or share from this tour on my upcoming blogs? Let me know in the comments!

Looking forward to seeing lots of you at these upcoming shows!

Regards,

Tim