Get on your paper hats! Blow into those party horns! Stuff yourself silly with cake! This year marks 20 years since The Aquabats first pulled on their spandex, plugged in their guitars and attempted to fight crime and save the world with arse-kicking rock’n’roll.
It’s a huge milestone, and one that few bands get to achieve. So what does it feel like to be two decades deep?
“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry!” exclaims The MC Bat Commander, lead vocalist and fearless leader of The Aquabats. “Where did the time go? It doesn’t seem like that long ago – when I think about the bands that had been around for 20 years when I was a kid, they were old! That was bands like The Rolling Stones, Devo, The Who… they’d been around forever! Thinking about matching that time, it’s really strange.
“I think our attitude back when we started and our attitude now – I mean, it’s kind of different, but I think it’s essentially the same. It’s basically always been to have fun and see what we can get away with. We’ve always been the class clowns – every tour we’ve done, every festival that we’ve been on, we’ve been expected to be kicked off at any moment. Not for doing anything inherently bad, but just for being the nerds that we are. It’s been a pretty fun thing to just keep doing.”
Over the years, the Californians have expanded their empire significantly. They were the stars of The Aquabats! Super Show! – a live action children’s program that incorporated new songs and ran for nearly two years. They’ve also produced five studio albums, with the most recent being 2011’s Hi-Five Soup! One could say that the band members, who have remained unchanged for eight years, have been married to their job. Sure, but don’t think that’s gotten in the way of the performers’ romantic endeavours – well, more than it already has, at least.
“The early days were a little more fancy-free,” recalls Bat Commander. “We were all single and out there, ready to mingle – and all the girls would run away the second we put our costumes on. My wife, who I’ve been with for a long time, originally didn’t know about the band when we were first going out. That almost ruined it, so I tried to keep her away from it as much as possible. I had to prove to her that I had other ambitions and other plans – I wasn’t just going to go to my own private Comic-Con every day.”
The Aquabats are bringing their spandex, guitars and assorted weapons back to Australia in February as part of the Soundwave festivities, and they couldn’t be more excited to extend their 20-year celebrations into 2015. They also have some very peculiar extra-curricular plans. “I’m not just brown-nosing here,” says Bat Commander, “but I would totally love to move to Australia. We all love it down there – we’ll even take out a few cane toads for you guys while we’re in town. We’ll just stay there, in costume, exterminating cane toads for weeks and weeks to pay for the shows. That could also be a really good episode of the show, now that I’m thinking…”
On the subject of the TV show, 2014 started on a bum note for the band as it was revealed that Super Show had not been renewed. In spite of this, Bat Commander is certain the program is not going to go down without a fight. “I think the independent nature of the band and the punk rock ethos has inspired us to keep making it,” he says. “It’s a little bit of a setback, but we’ve been trying to do this for so long. It’s been such a dream come true, and the show has actually turned out pretty well – I watch the show and I sometimes can’t believe it. We actually pulled it off. We’ve definitely got to keep doing it.”
So the dream is still very much alive for The Aquabats – there are still arses to kick and names to take for Bat Commander and co. It begs the question, what is the key to the band staying together for all this time? Is it because they’re the heroes that the world of music needs right now?
“I think the reason we’ve been able to kind of hang in there is, at the heart of The Aquabats, it’s just fun,” says Bat Commander. “It’s just entertainment. It doesn’t really mean anything too deep. At the same time, we really care about our fans and want everyone to have a great time together. We’re all really good friends in this band, and I think that’s been a major part of what’s kept us together. We’ve shared this fun trip, and we’ve expected it to end so many times. We’ve been really grateful that we’ve been able to keep doing it.
“We’ve never had any major expectations – if you set out to be U2, regardless of who you are, odds are it’s not gonna work out. We set out to be a bunch of dudes just sneaking into shows and having fun – and that’s worked out just fine for us.”
Catch The Aquabats atSoundwave Festival2015 alongsideSlipknot, Faith No More, Soundgarden, Slash, Marilyn Manson, Incubus, Lamb Of God, Fall Out Boy, Ministry, Judas Priest and many more atSydney Olympic Park fromSaturday February 28 and Sunday March 1, ticketsonline.
