The Circus is back in town

Brisbane alternative/electronic rock band Dead Letter Circus will kick off their self-titled album tour in Bunbury tonight – just another visit back home for frontman Kim Benzie.

Benzie was raised in Bunbury and said he loved getting the chance to play at Prince of Wales Hotel, which was his first ever foray into live music.

“The first time I ever went to a gig was at the Prince, I snuck in when I was underage,” Benzie said.

“It just sort of sparked – music was just this thing I listened to and enjoyed and I hadn't really thought about how it was created or even imagined myself doing it.”

Shortly after, Benzie saw a guy playing guitar at a party and stayed up until 4am learning Dead Skin Mask by Slayer, much to the annoyance of everyone around him.

Two weeks later Benzie had absorbed every riff from the guitar player. End of school was fast approaching and with no career direction in mind Benzie told his mum, a TAFE receptionist, he wanted to go on welfare and play music.

You can probably imagine how the conversation went down.

“The next day she enrolled me in a TAFE course doing horticulture,” he said.

Benzie quickly wriggled free from a life of garden cultivation and booked a one-way ticket to Brisbane.

He had ran away to join the circus and just didn’t know it yet.

Benzie eventually returned to the Prince of Wales Hotel, this time under the spotlight.

“The first time we got to play the Prince, for me personally, I didn’t really talk about it that much but I was like ‘holy s**t this is full circle, I am now back playing on that same stage’,” Benzie said.

It would be one of the band’s many appearances in the Bunbury music scene, soon to be another one when they hit the stage tonight.

Catch Dead Letter Circus tonight at the Prince of Wales Hotel when doors open at 8pm and at Settler’s Tavern in Margaret River tomorrow at 9.30pm.