Crowded around a coffee shop table holding tiny saucers sipping espresso from even tinier cups might not be how you’d picture the bandmates of Nuclear Tourism, especially if you’ve been to one of their shows, but Athens’ beloved skate punks are dependably full of surprises. While sitting down with them to discuss Nuclear Tourism’s success, the playful energy of camaraderie was contagious.
The youthful band shares a closeness on and off stage that reflects nearly a decade of friendship and playing music together. Parker Allen (singer, lead guitar), Brennan Murphy (drums), and twin brothers Nate and Graham Beveridge (bass and rhythm guitar respectively) first met at Nuçi’s Space’s Camp Amped program, where they were placed into their first band together. “Unfortunately, it stuck,” says Allen.
However, at that time having a band was more so an accessory to what truly bonded the four: a mutual love for skateboarding. Allen and Murphy explain that the Athens skate community is so small that it’s very tightly knit and welcoming. After all, there are only two places to skateboard, so you’re likely to always see a familiar face. As the group approached high school graduation and started taking the band side of things a little more seriously, skateboarding maintained an integral role in the dynamic.
“Our first [tour] was kind of geared towards skateboarding. It was super tight. We just skated all the time,” says Murphy.
“Was the second one not geared towards skateboarding?” asks Nate.
“The second one was geared towards skateboarding, but then I broke one of my hands,” says Murphy. “We were in Vegas, and I was like, ‘I’m not NOT playing the Vegas show.’ I just got really trashed and ruined my hands more. So it’s easy to get swept up… I think there’s times in which one must hold themselves back and really consider the implications of playing through injury.”
“I will say we learned the same thing on our recent little tour because we all got horrifically sunburnt, and we had to cut Parker out of his sequined top at the end of the last show,” says Nate.
Over the years many lessons have been learned, but Nuclear Tourism has broken through the Athens ceiling from regularly playing rowdy house shows to the main stage of the Georgia Theatre. Although the band notes the sound quality is much better at the Georgia Theatre, it was much harder to play off the crowd’s energy and know where to toe the line of onstage antics. It was a new environment with new lessons (and achievements) earned, like leveraging their rider into an estimated 60 cans of Miller High Life.
Even without the cushy perks, house shows are an integral part of Athens’ music culture. Graham notes that house shows are a “majority of the scene in some ways,” especially with the loss of venues like the Caledonia Lounge. Door charges and bar rules that can be barriers to entry are absent, so it’s easier to draw a wider and more diverse audience. Not to mention easier for musicians to play.
“Anyone can play a house show, and most of the time people there are going to be stoked about it anyway because they’re all just out there to have a good time,” says Nate. “I remember the first house show we ever played in Athens… people were just like floor to ceiling because there were people crowdsurfing, and already the ceiling was probably only a foot or two taller. I was like, ‘Oh, this is sick. This is different.’”
After sharing bills with Australian punk band The Chats and surf-punk legends Agent Orange, amassing more than a million plays on Spotify for their biggest single “Subatomic,” and gaining confidence in their craft, all of the members share a collective sigh of relief and excitement to release their sophomore album Nuclear Tourism on May 12. Having played many of the tracks live for three years, “it’s been a long time in the making,” says Graham. “This newest album is different.”
Nuclear Tourism’s 2018 debut album Scraping By is what the group considers more straightforward surf punk that defined the band at the time. Growing as musicians, the new album displays a broader melding of the members’ influences and maturity in composition. Although Allen is the lead songwriter, each track was workshopped by the entire band. In both genres and song elements, the band shows more comfort and flexibility in trying new things and expanding their sound.
“Part of me was a little skeptical coming into this record with all these different genres,” says Allen. “I honestly didn’t know if they’d go together. We had a bunch of ska/reggae songs, and then the next one would be a Stooges/Lou Reed kinda thing. This album is definitely more well-rounded, more garage-rock influenced—stuff like Skegss, Together Pangea, Meth Wax, plus Athens bands like The Whigs.”
“I think sonically, like how they were recorded, makes it cohesive where it otherwise might not have been,” says Murphy about recording the album at The Glow Recording Studio. “There are certain departures that take you down one way, but then it grounds itself. But I feel like it never strays.”
In celebration of the album, Nuclear Tourism is holding a listening party and an album release show. On Thursday, May 11 at Flicker Theatre & Bar, there will be physical copies of the album and new merch for sale, plus the promise of “entertainment”… and plenty of beer. The following night on May 12, Nuclear Tourism will perform the album at the 40 Watt Club for its official release, where Allen supposedly “has a few tricks up his sleeve.”
WHO: Nuclear Tourism, CDSM, Mx Lonely, Coma Therapy
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Friday, May 12, 8 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $12
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