Will You Make It In The End, Through All The Twists And Bends?

SOMETIMES DREAMS COME TRUE

by Matt Bond

The first assignment I ever had to do in high school was my favourite. It was for music and it was super simple. Pick your favourite singer or band and make a poster for them. Since it was an all boys school and the year was 2000, there were a lot of Limp Bizkit posters (some would say too many Limp Bizkit posters), plenty of Eminem tributes and a whole bunch of Oasis ones. Notably, there was also a lovely 'Brittany Spears' poster. The spelling still makes me smile, but that's not what we're here to talk about. We're here to talk about twelve year old me and the band that I chose to make a poster for... Killing Heidi. 

Apparently it's around the age of twelve that you start to really focus on the type of music that you're going to love. And Killing Heidi were the first band that I really, really loved. Fronted by siblings Ella and Jesse Hooper, Killing Heidi stepped into the mainstream in 1999 with the singles 'Weir' and 'Mascara', the latter of which would go all the way to #1 on the ARIA Charts. Like the rest of Australia, I couldn't get enough of their debut album Reflector. It came fully stocked with rock anthems that were made to be sung along to and would walk away with Album of the Year honours at the ARIA Awards. Now that Reflector is finally digitally available, I got myself a copy a couple of weeks ago and fell in love with it all over again. If you want to recapture those angsty teenage vibes of days gone by, I suggest giving it a listen. You'll thank me after a good scream-along to 'Superman/Supergirl' and 'Live Without It'.

Killing Heidi would go on to release two more albums; the criminally underrated Present in 2002 and their self-titled third album in 2004. Present was the first album I bought with my own money. The many listens in the years since means it was money well spent. Sadly the band would go on a lengthy hiatus before I ever managed to see them live. Ella and Jesse would go on to work as a duo under the name The Verses, with Ella releasing her brilliant solo album In Tongues in 2014. Two EP's would follow before something truly awesome happened last year. Killing Heidi started doing some reunion shows. And then last month it was announced that they would be doing a full tour, with a stop in Brisbane on June 10 at The Tivoli. Because sometimes dreams come true and I'll finally be able to tick Killing Heidi off my musical bucket list. 

To be honest with you, my poster was pretty crappy. But it came from a place of love and I'm pretty sure I got to stand in front of a bunch of boys I didn't know and tell them how much I loved Killing Heidi for a couple of minutes and I'm still doing that so not much has changed and I don't really know where I'm going with this now, but... there are still tickets available for the Killing Heidi shows. And if you haven't picked up some tickets yet, now is the time to do it. Right here - at the Live Nation site. If you're in Brisbane and going along to the show, look out for me. I'll be screaming along to 'Mascara' about how just wearing black won't take care of that and if I hear 'Outside of Me' I might cry because that was legit my favourite song of ever for a long time when I was able to rank music like that.

Will you fulfill all your dreams? It's apparently not as easy as it seems... but for one night, June 10, all of my dreams will be coming true. Hope to see you there!