This summer, Vacations hit the road across the United States to follow up their sold-out runs in Australia and Europe, playing songs from their latest record, No Place Like Home. The band put the album together after touring for the first time post-COVID, leaning into arcs about mental health that completely transformed the Vacations voice. The track “Next Exit” alone has propelled the band to new heights, currently sitting at over 26 million streams. Later this fall, Vacations will be presenting their cross-continental MATES Festival in Los Angeles, with a bill set to include Puma Blue, Claud, IAN SWEET, Yot Club, Kacy Hill, Jaguar Jonze and WAAX. As a teaser, Campbell Burns, Jake Johnson, Nate Delizzotti and Joseph Van Lier snapped some pictures from the most recent Vacations gigs and were kind enough to share them with Paste.
“Our tour for No Place Like Home across the USA was one of the most exhausting tours we’ve ever done, but despite the difficulty of tour life, we still had a wonderful time and made some great memories together,” the band says. “These photos are just a small snapshot of those memories. As for what’s next, we’re taking a break to get back to writing music but not without one final bang. We’re taking our MATES festival to Los Angeles! I’m incredibly excited for this next chapter, the line-up is perfect too!”
Charlie Hardy is one of the best photographers in Australia and a dear friend of ours. We’re all from Newcastle, it’s so nice to be traveling the world together and making art.
The halfway point of the tour! We went out to a few bars in Wichita and ended the night with some belligerently drunk karaoke.
Jake and I played a lot of Magic: The Gathering on tour. A fun way to pass the time, anything that gets me off my phone is always appreciated too.
A lot of our crew are from Philadelphia. This is Steven, who’s been our tour manager for a few years now. We had a few days off there and they took us to see our first baseball game! Tailgating included. The Phillies played the Yankees. We lost, but we had a great time regardless.
The moment Alex Lahey turned 32, also in Philadelphia! We went out to celebrate at a few dive bars. I love how homely they were and the drinks were so much cheaper than LA (where I’m currently based).
John and Grace at the start of the tour in Chicago working on the set-list. John is our producer and musical direction. He’s a kind, gentle soul, just like Grace who joined us to play keys and sing on this tour.
That’s Bernie! He’s our sound guy in the USA, and he’s bloody good at what he does.
Vacations will be hosting their MATES Festival at the Bellweather in Los Angeles on November 16. More details can be found here.