Local grungy indie punk trio SURFWAX are embarking on a 10-day tour snaking their way through the heartland of America, starting in Memphis, TN on Wednesday, April 10th and ending back home in Jackson on the weed holiday, Saturday April 20th. This won’t be their first tour, but with 10 stops it’ll be their longest in a while. As bassist Van Lee puts it, “We’ve had a nice little break, but damn it feels good to be back at it.” And back at it they will be: 10 days, 10 shows, 8 states – life on the road can be grueling, but for them, it’s pure excitement. “Every tour feels exciting, especially if we’re hitting new cities and states. Touring alongside a band we love is even better, and this tour has both of those,” remarked drummer Seth McCann.

SURFWAX will be joining St. Louis trio The Public on all 10 dates with different support on each night. As for how the tour came about, it was all quite straightforward. “Pretty much just hit up The Public to see if they wanted to get out this spring,” says guitarist/vocalist Greg Moorman. “We’ve played a bunch of shows together in the past. They just dropped The Triumvirate II and we’re on the verge of recording and need to road-test some new material so it works out perfectly, timing-wise.”

When asked about this new material, the band were pretty tight-lipped, but as Seth says, there are some big things coming. Their latest release, PARTYWAV, recently celebrated its first birthday, and after listening to a few of the tracks, I have to say, when these guys are in town next, I’ll definitely have to be there. And I (hopefully) will on the weed holiday at Urban Foxes. I have dilly-dallied when it comes to seeing this band in person and hopefully you, reader, will not repeat my mistake.

After this tour, SURFWAX will be performing at the third iteration of Couch Fest on May 24th, and I asked the band who – aside from themselves, of course – they were most excited to see. Van gave a very beauty pageant-esque answer: “It’s so hard to choose between so many amazing bands, so I’d have to say I’m most excited to see anyone we haven’t been able to see or perform with yet!” Seth was a bit more direct: “I’m excited for every band and artist but Satan and The Sunbeams holds a special place. We’ve been long distance homies for the better part of a decade, and probably shared the stage with them more than anyone else.”

“I’ve wanted to see Nighdrator for a long while so I’ll be close by for that set for sure,” remarks Greg. “Also Coffinwolf Ultra on Friday night, they’re one of my favorite bands ever – their sound is on a tier of it’s own, really.” He adds, “The first year we put it on we just really wanted to get a bunch of regional bands we played with on tour together so they could meet and go play each other’s cities. That’s still the vibe really, it’s just two days now instead of one.”

I, very unfortunately, booked myself a trip the weekend of Couchfest and won’t be in attendance this year, but I can just tell this event is going to be a special one. So, I hope everyone has lots of fun on my behalf.

Make sure you catch SURFWAX and The Public on their tour and during Couchfest!