To celebrate a whole ten years of their album Much Love, Microwave hits the road this spring with their friends. They also happen to have a Chicago tour date at Salt Shed this April.
We had a few questions and Tyler from Microwave told us about his favorite tracks from the album, fav place to eat, and their very first Riot Fest performance.
Don’t forget to get your tickets to the gig!
What was your favorite track from Much Love to work on and what’s your favorite track to perform?
I still remember a lot from working on that album… the moment Nate busted into the room when he figured out the chorus lyrics for Busy, trying to sort out the bridge in Homebody, changing the groove in Dull, rearranging the end of Whimper, tracking a rhythm guitar in Wrong but taking it out because it sounded… wrong, haha.
My favorite track to work on would probably be Neighbors. The original guitar riff that Nate wrote the song around ended up being taken out and my original bass part sounded like weird island music. The intro transformed into that barbershop-ish vibe you hear now. I found a video of us recording the snaps in the intro just the other day.
My favorite to perform live would probably be Vomit. The drop into the big heavy outro is always a highlight of the set for us. We’ve never played Homebody live, but it’s been a lot of fun at rehearsals and I’m really looking forward to finally playing that one on this tour.
You’ve got some pretty awesome support on this tour. Any song (or songs) you’re excited to hear every night?
I’m so stoked for the support on this tour! I can’t believe we get to watch Anthony Green every night. We randomly met Anthony in passing when we were on tour in Australia in 2023 at the Sydney airport when he was touring with Saosin. They put us on their guest list and I caught them chilling in the back of the crowd during our set that night, too. It will be great to make a formal introduction. We’ve played a festival or two with Hunny, but never toured together. I’m surprised it’s taken this long. We obviously couldn’t make our minds up with the opening spot, but I’m glad it worked out that way because they’re all awesome.
We toured opening for All Get Out on the first tour we did after Much Love was released. I’m looking forward to hearing some songs from their new record. Into It Over It was a very influential band in our local scene around the time Microwave was starting. It’s an honor to have them on some shows especially in their hometown. I’m stoked to hear Bad Luck’s new track “Shovel” live, as well. What a tune! Moving Mountains, Slow Joy and Pure Hex all rock. Dang. What a sick tour.
And since you’ll be in Chicago, any places you love going to or eating at? Any places you’ve never been but you wish you had time for while in town?
Hands down it’s Chicago Diner. As much as I would like to try a new spot, CD is the absolute best and I would just be wishing I’d have gone to CD instead. The tempeh potato hash is my go-to. My wife and I went 3 times during one stop in Chicago on tour in 2024 and I got the tempeh potato hash every time with zero regrets.
I’d also like to check out Dark Matter Coffee. Our homie Dan Lambton works there and always brings us some stuff when we roll through because he’s just the best, but I’ve never actually made it over to the shop.
Also, special shout out to Green Eye Lounge where I had my first shot of Malort.
Ten years is a wild amount of time and you’ve been a band for longer. As musicians, any things you’re happy you’ve grown from in that time? Anything you’d want to explore more of in the future?
Yeah, we’ve been a band for 13 years now. That’s crazy.
I’m happy with how we’ve improved our live sound over the years. When we were playing bars and house shows and first started touring, we never used a click track live, no one was singing backups and we had just a handful of effects pedals.
We’ve tightened up a ton and added a bunch of layers to our live sound. Personally, I would love to spend more time with piano and truly learn how to play the lap steel to incorporate in future releases. There are a few lap steel licks on our latest record, but I was just winging it.
I believe ten years ago was also the first time you played Riot Fest, in both Denver and Chicago! Any memories from those weekends that have stuck with you?
We were so excited to get the offer to play Riot Fest the first time. We didn’t have any tours or routing shows at that time so we just drove all the way from Atlanta to Denver and back (that’s about 24 hours one way if you don’t stop) and then again Atlanta to Chicago just to play a 25 minute set. We did attend the festival all 3 days each time, though. I remember at the Denver festival, our stage was in the middle of a rodeo arena with dirt floors and everything.
We’ve played some unique places over the years but that’s definitely top of the list. We’ve been fortunate enough to play Riot Fest in Chicago 2 and a half more times since then. I say half because our set got rained out in 2023, but we did get to play a crazy late night make up set. A Riot Fest offer is always an immediate “yes” from us and we always try to attend all 3 days regardless of what day we play. We’ve played a lot of festivals at this point and Riot Fest really is top tier.
Oh, also, when we drove to the Chicago date, we had some sort of alignment issue with our van that caused one of the tires to wear down unevenly and it really peaked on that drive. The van just shook violently the entire time. I can’t believe we made the whole drive like that.
And finally, if you could give one piece of advice to your 2016 self, what would it be?
Check your alignment and rotate your tires with every oil change.
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