Scary, extreme weather conditions are seemingly common in Australia. What’s less common, however, is scary, extreme cold weather conditions. But that’s something that Virginia-based hardcore punks, Iron Reagan, had to deal with during their US tour in support of Napalm Death and Voivod. And it must’ve been pretty scary to intimidate frontman Tony Foresta.
“The weather in the east was just scary,” Foresta reflects. “[The tour] was great, it was one of the best I’ve ever been on despite the fact we got stuck some places. Once we drove off the fucking road and went into a ditch. About a week ago we drove into a jack-knifed semi trailer on the highway.
“You just gotta be real careful, and drive really fuckin’ slow,” he continues. “We had to cancel a couple of shows because we wouldn’t have made it safely. We were definitely out there in the trenches.”
Iron Reagan are heading to Australia in early April, and while we’ve bid farewell to our summer, it’ll still be a damn sight warmer in Oz than the conditions they experienced on the Napalm Death tour, and Foresta can’t wait to visit our shores.
“I love Australia so much,” he says. “Iron Reagan have never been there yet, so it’s going to be a major time for us, and we couldn’t stop talking about it when we were out on the road. My other band, Municipal Waste, have toured there twice, but it’s going to be great bringing Mark, Rob and Ryan there. They’re all really excited about it.”
Iron Reagan are often labelled a supergroup – the band features current and former members of high profile heavy acts Municipal Waste and Darkest Hour, however Foresta seems very unimpressed with the term and the fact that they’ve been lumped with the label.
“We never really tried to form a supergroup,” he says. “None of our bands have really been big or super. We’re just a bunch of dudes from Richmond who grew up together and started jamming. Me and the drummer, Ryan, have jammed together for ten years and we had all these ideas kicking around. And when he quit Darkest Hour we said, ‘Fuck it man, let’s finally do this band.”
While Iron Reagan’s live set lives up to the notion of, ‘We’re here for a good time, not a long time’, they still manage to pack an awful lot into the time they’re onstage. “It’s a very high energy set,” he describes. “We only play for about 25 to 30 minutes, but we play about 30 songs in that time.”
You would think that such a short stage presence wouldn’t allow much time for Foresta to connect verbally with the audience between songs, but this isn’t necessarily the case, according to him. “If I drink a lot, I’ll all of a sudden have something to say about everything,” he laughs.
Following their Australian tour, the band will embark on an extensive tour of Europe. “We’re playing some really cool festivals that I like a lot,” Foresta says. “We’re playing Groezrock in Belgium and Hellfest in France. I’ve played them before and they were really cool, so I’m pretty sure they’re going to be good times.”
Iron Reagan play theCambridge Hotel, Newcastle on Thursday April 9 and the Bald Faced Stag onFriday April 10.
