Polaris and pals rock up
THE Dalrymple Hotel will have its roof blown off when metalcore legends Polaris bring their North Queensland tour to Townsville tomorrow night.
The Sydney band kick off a whirlwind string of shows in Cairns tonight, before hitting Townsville, Mackay and Rockhampton over the next three days.
Polaris spent much of the beginning of 2019 supporting UK outfit Architects throughout Europe, and then in Australian capital cities.
“I was saying every single night on stage it’s a dream come true to be able to tour with one of our favourite bands, and every show was just as incredible as the next,” frontman Jamie Hails told the Bulletin. “We’re still just kind of processing it.”
Hails said the group was excited to visit new locations for the first time on their North Queensland tour, including Townsville.
“We’ve been wanting to branch out and play places we’ve never been to before,” he said.
“We always have fans come up to the merch table and say ‘we’ve travelled all the way from such-and-such place’ and I don’t even know where the hell that is, so we’ve been wanting to do a bit of an outthere regional run.
“I’m very excited to get out there and meet fans that have never had the chance to see us before.”
Polaris’ debut album, The Mortal Coil reached No.6 on the ARIA Album Charts when it was released in 2017 and No.1 on the Independent Albums Chart.
While most of the details of any new music are being kept under wraps, Polaris did roadtest a new song during their shows earlier this month.
“The Architects tour felt like the right time and place to debut some form music,” Hails said.
“Seeing as a lot of people want to hear it we may consider playing it on more of the tours we have coming up.
“We are working on a new album, I won’t say where we’re at with it at the moment, but it’s on its way. The best I’ll say is ‘soon’.”
Brisbane band Stepson will join Polaris on all their North Queensland shows, with local acts Chapters of Entropy and Native Tongue to support the Townsville leg of the tour.
Native Tongue vocalist Jaden Joslin said the opportunity to support Polaris in front of a home crowd felt “too good to be true”.
“Polaris really are quite a big inspiration to us as a band, in both sound and goals,” Joslin said.
“When we found out we would be joining them on stage in Townsville, especially so early on for us as a band, it was an exhilarating feeling.”
Native Tongue have only been together for just over a year, but are already making waves in the North Queensland heavy music scene.
“The reactions that we have gotten from the Townsville heavy music community have been overwhelmingly positive, which is incredible to say the least,” Joslin said.
“Having so many friends and family support what we are doing has meant the world to us and has really put a fire in us to aim and achieve some crazy goals, but most of all, just to keep having fun with it.
“We plan to release a couple more songs before the year’s end with visuals attached to them like our current two singles, Glutton and Vices.
“We are also in the process of booking some shows throughout regional Queensland over the next couple of months, basically we are just pushing forward full steam ahead in any way we can.”
Chapters of Entropy vocalof new ist Jack Whitmore also said his band felt honoured to have the chance to share the stage with bands they admired.
“To tell you the truth, we have never been more keen to play a show in our lives,” Whitmore said.
“All of us boys are big fans of Polaris and Stepson, they’re all such talented dudes. A big thank you to Polaris and Stepson for allowing us to play this insane show.”
The five-piece first formed with four members in 2013, and have some new music releases on the horizon.
“All of us were good mates seeing as we all went to the same school for many years, three out of four of us had a bit of a music background,” Whitmore said. “We had always intended on creating music of some kind.
“We have really started pushing for a new sound with the new songs we have very recently written.
“We are really trying to step away from the metalcore sound and push for a sound a little more up-to-date.
“The new sound we are going for is a lot more hardcore and bouncier.”
Catch Polaris, Stepson, Chapters of Entropy and Native Tongue at the Dalrymple Hotel tomorrow from 8pm. Tickets from Oztix.