Nearly a decade has passed since Cane Hill last toured Australia, but frontman Elijah Witt hasn’t forgotten a second of it.
As New Orleans metal outfit Cane Hill prepares to return next month alongside Ocean Grove on the Oddworld Underground Tour, we asked Witt to revisit the moments that still make him laugh, shake his head and question reality.
From accidentally becoming the subject of a scathing review over a cigarette, to giant bats appearing during a Black Sabbath soundtrack, seafood monsters and ghost stories, these are the five Australian memories that have stuck with him ever since.
Cigarettes & Cymbals
“This first one comes with a disclaimer that I don’t do this shit anymore. For my first favourite Australian touring memory, I don’t know if anyone else is going to think it’s funny, but I thought it was hilarious.
We were playing a sideshow with Atreyu at some venue. We rented all of our drum shit because we were traveling with Bullet For My Valentine and they didn’t have a bus and trailer. They just rented every day because they’re Bullet. So we also rented every day from individual rental spaces. Probably cost a nightmare amount of money, but that’s a digression.
We were playing a weird venue, just Atreyu and us, we didn’t have our own sound guy. All I did was light a cigarette inside the venue because that was cool, and all my heroes smoked cigarettes on stage. Then we played our stoner song, ‘Strange Candy’, and when I was done with the cigarette, I put it out on Devin [Clarke’s] cymbal.
I didn’t think anything of it, I was like, ‘fuck yeah, put it out on the cymbal. Hard-bodied. Cool, even. The crowd thinks I’m cool for sure’.
Then some dude wrote a whole article on his website about our show and he wouldn’t shut up about how I put the cigarette out on Devin’s cymbal, and railed me about how it was disrespectful, and how if he was the drummer, he would’ve been pissed off.
And I was like, ‘of all the things I’ve ever done?! You’re not even mad that I lit the cigarette. Are you just mad about how I put it out?’. That’s crazy! So that’s my number one.”
Strange Candy
Meat Trays & Exit Signs
“I don’t think I’ve ever talked about this, my second favorite memory…oh, I hope he doesn’t mind (laughs). I think it was funny. He’s not this guy anymore. But also props to him.
One time Ryan [Henriquez], our bassist, his sister came to one of the shows on the Bullet tour in Australia. And somebody on the tour implied to Ryan, a crew member implied to Ryan that his sister was hot and that his sister was not in fact his sister, but was just a woman that he was trying to sleep with.
I’ve never seen it before, but out of nowhere, a whole tray of meat just starts flying past me and hits the wall. And I hear him screaming and then he broke the exit sign to the venue.
His sister’s just sitting in the corner of the room I’m in who also watched this meat tray fly across the room. That was our only food, I’d like to just make that important point. That was our only food.
Me and her just watched it fly and land across the wall. And that’s the whole memory.
I believe the crew member was forced to apologise. We were also forced to apologise because we threw a meat tray and broke the exit sign. But that didn’t spoil Australia.
His sister actually lives in Australia now, she’s married to an Australian man. She came and saw us on that tour and she said, ‘I’m going to stay here. I’m gonna make it work and I’m going to stay here’. And she somehow did, which I still think is the craziest thing on earth.”
Blood & Honey
Seafood Monsters
“Number three is a seafood thing. I don’t know what the hell it was, but it was a gigantic lobster squid that I had.
Brandon Saller from Atreyu took us to a park and treated us like his little buddies. We were all 22, I think we were legitimately just everybody’s little buddies for five years of touring. And then you find this path where now the other bands are your little buddies.
Metalcore bands nowadays? They’re my little buddies!
But back then, Brandon just pulled out these little tiny monsters. Tiny for monsters, very large for seafood that you grill and eat. And he cracked them bad boys open.
I feel like when people do that with us, people like to feed us weird food. And I think it’s because we’re from New Orleans. I think there’s this ulterior motive to get a rise out of us.
You crack open a weird monster and we’re just going to look at it and be like, ‘that looks like food’. You crack open pretty much anything and we say, ‘you could eat that’. Frogs? Eat it. Squirrel? Eat it. Little crawfish, little things like, ‘yo found that in the mud?’. Boil it. Why not!”
Fade
Black Sabbath, Bats & The Perfect Soundtrack
“We did drugs.
This is how moment number four starts.
I clearly remember there being Molly at some point, but I don’t think I did that because there was acid also available and I for sure took that.
We made an entire tour admat for our next tour with pictures of us taking acid in Australia.
Great times.
The important part is my band went to a park while I stayed back at the hotel watching Die Hard because my trip hadn’t kicked in yet.
They sat on benches looking across this huge green space while listening to Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath.
As soon as the song kicked in… bats, motherfucker!
Gigantic bats flew out of the trees.
Can I emphasize how cool that is? Black Sabbath starts, riff goes hard, bats come out of the trees. Bats, not normal ones either, we’re talking supersized bats.
It just felt like a moment. And I missed it because I’m an idiot watching Die Hard.”
You’re So Wonderful
Ghost Stories & Porter From Atreyu
“They came back to the hotel, started drinking wine, and I looked over at Ryan and James. Their mouths were stained red from the wine and I went, ‘those two guys are demons’.
So we all went to the beach with Porter from Atreyu.
Ever since this, I have had an undying respect for Porter. I think he is a wonderful, spiritual, beautiful person.
He helped us at the beach have some good discussions with each other and understand the spirits that were around us at the time.
That’s going to sound like some kooky bullshit to some people, but it’s fine.
I’ve lived with those my whole life. New Orleans is chock-full of them. It’s something you just can’t deny.
If you have energy, if the body is built on energy, where does it go when you die?
It probably just hangs out.
The end of this story is ultimately just that Porter from Atreyu was a good spiritual guide that helped us talk to ghosts.”
Ocean Grove Oddworld Underground Australian Tour ft. Cane Hill
- Thursday, August 13th – Perth (Amplifier Bar)
- Friday, August 14th – Adelaide (The Gov)
- Saturday, August 15th – Melbourne (170 Russell)
- Thursday, August 20th – Sydney (Factory Theatre)
- Friday, August 21st – Newcastle (Hamilton Station Hotel)
- Saturday, August 22nd – Brisbane (Princess Theatre)
Find out more and pick up your tickets here.
Whether it was unforgettable shows, flying meat trays, oversized seafood, giant bats or conversations about ghosts on Australian beaches, it’s safe to say Cane Hill’s first trip Down Under left a lasting impression.
Australian fans won’t have to wait much longer to make a new set of memories either, with Cane Hill returning for the first time since 2016 next month as special guests on Ocean Grove’s Oddworld Underground Australian Tour.
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