You Am I tour celebrate 30th anniversary of the album that changed Aussie rock

You Am I was the biggest band in the land in the mid 90s and mark a big milestone by correcting the record on a few myths of those wild days.

As You Am I celebrate the dirty thirty anniversary of one of Australia’s greatest rock albums, the revered rockers are keen to blow up a few enduring myths from the 1990s.

The rock quartet, who changed the sound of Aussie rock with the award-winning Hi Fi Way in 1995 and its even bigger successor 1996’s Hourly Daily, have just kicked off a national tour celebrating the big milestone.

One thing you won’t see at the shows will be Tim Rogers, Andy Kent, Rusty Hopkinson and Davey Lane trashing their gear at the end of the set.

In the 90s, that was a rock tradition. And while You Am I regularly indulged in the ritual after an incendiary gig, one show in Hobart in 1995, opened by rising stars Silverchair, became national news.

You Am I is one of the Big Day Out generation’s most loved bands. Picture: Supplied

You Am I took the Newcastle teens on a national tour with them and acted as mentors and guardians at the request of the parents of Daniel Johns, Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou. Silverchair’s name was partly inspired by You Am I’s altrock hit Berlin Chair.

“Silverchair were playing before us and were bigger than us then and we didn’t really give a shit about that. They were 15 or 16 then,” drummer Hopkinson recalls.

“We had this great show in Hobart and we trashed our gear because we used to like trashing our gear, and then someone rang up Michael Tunn on Triple J and said that You Am I had a hissy fit and trashed all their gear on stage because Silverchair went down better than us.

“We were sitting in the van listening to the announcer trying to make it a big deal, asking listeners to call in if they’d seen the show.

“Then someone called up and said ‘They’ve done it every time I’ve bloody seen them!’”

Rogers and his bandmates served as mentors for Silverchair. Picture: Tony Mott / Supplied.

Those were the wild days when rock was dangerous, and You Am I, Powderfinger, Silverchair, Regurgitator and The Cruel Sea carved up pub stages and incited frenzied moshpits at the Big Day Out. You Am I was on the bill for five of the Big Day Out festivals between 1992 and 1997.

Rogers was one of the most dangerous and unpredictable frontmen of the altrock scene, wildmilling like a mad man, howling like a wolf. And sometimes taking out his frustrations on the fans with caustic sprays from the stage.

He was wrestling with the toll of touring and the music industry machine on his mental health, and heavily self-medicating in an era when an artist’s wellbeing was sacrificed for the box office and chart gods.

Andy Kent, Rogers, Davey Lane and Rusty Hopkinson are feeling the love on their 30th anniversary lap. Picture: Supplied

“It was never hating on the crowd,” Rogers said of his occasionally volatile behaviour at gigs.

“I wasn’t well, and no excuse for bad behaviour and making people feel small, but it was a reaction to feeling so anxious and nervous and inadequate.

“And, you know, I barely ate a potato in five years. It was all just starving your brain of good stuff and I was a very late developer, mentally and emotionally. It was all of that.

“It was also when the bands we were playing with were a lot harder than us and we were just used to getting abused or stuff thrown at us.

“I’d love to go back and do those shows again and not be perceived as not appreciating the crowds there ... some of those shows were the most joyous nights.”

As for other rock star behaviour, they weren’t the type to trash televisions in hotel rooms.

Their biggest crime was to throw chair cushions out a Melbourne hotel window one night.

“We threw a chair out of a hotel in St Kilda when we got the Soundgarden tour (in Australia and later, the US),” Rogers said.

Hopkinson corrected his mate. “It was cushions! We were like ‘Woooo!’ and we threw all these cushions out. I think we got charged $200 or something like that.”

You Am I romp through 41 songs on the Hi Fi Daily Double Down tour including Hi Fi Way and Hourly Daily in full.

You Am I were one of the biggest bands in the land in the mid 1990s. Picture: Supplied.

Hi Fi Way, the band’s second record, reached No.1, won the ARIA Award for Best Alternative Album, and features some of the bands most loved songs Cathy’s Clown, Jewels And Bullets, and Purple Sneakers, which all made Triple J’s Hottest 100 list of 1995. Album closer How Much Is Enough is my personal favourite.

Its successor Hourly Daily swept the 1996 ARIA Awards, picking up six trophies including Album of the Year.

The tour lands in Sydney this weekend and then onto all capital cities. For ticket and concert details, https://youami.com.au/