LEPERS & CROOKS
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- Wednesday
- Rad Bar, Wollongong
"It's a hard gig for musicians," explained Sam Baker.
The lead vocalist of Lepers & Crooks admitted he didn't pay rent and the Sydney five-piece were basically couch-surfers with no fixed address. The reason being, they're on a mission to saturate the market performing in front of thousands of passionate music lovers week after week.
The band of long-haired rock gods met in boarding school around the age of 13, finding a passion for classic and psychedelic rock music as common ground.
"We've been playing on and off for a fair while in different amalgamations and stuff - we're all 24 this year. We're very fortunate," said Baker. "We're passionate towards doing what our idols before us have done."
L&R in their current form has been solid for three years and has already conquered the country three times. Their previous tour of epic proportions saw them play 60 shows in four months.
The Through Gypsy Eyes Tour may not be as hectic, but is promised to be loud and fun with the boys passion shining through: because "music speaks louder than any language".
"For me, when I watch a band I like to see a band with passion, and enjoying every moment and having a good time. But also I like to feel like they appreciate the people standing in front of them and getting them involved," Baker said.
"[Fans] are the only reason why you have the ability to play live . . . The fact people come back to your shows and they're there, it's almost a sacred thing. It's special and you owe everything to that," he said. "There should be a complete ceremony between the audience and band to reach a higher state of mind before [the audience] go back to their normal lives."
Not everything about the frontman is deep; he also loves to have fun with the lads which has proved detrimental to his health and possibly sparked a trend of international proportions.
"At a gig in Griffith, I had a broken ankle and still stage-dived and crowd-surfed."
This happened before Dave Grohl broke his leg at a gig in Sweden with the Foo Fighters in June.
"It was the Raw Tour. I broke my ankle three weeks out and I had to do the tour wearing a big boot. But I still jumped around like a d---head and crowd-surfed and all that jazz. Although there was another gig actually, where the doctor told me to take the boot off. I said 'I don't know if you fully understand what I do', and he's like 'nah we need to get the leg moving'.
"So I jumped off this fold-back [speaker] probably the third song in and [fractured my ankle] all over again. I had to continue the gig and by the end I fainted and passed out."
Baker has no plans to break any more bones in Wollongong this week, but vows to commit to his "duty to entertain".
"We are who we are, we just like having a good time and we like playing music . . . but we don't try to be anything we're not."