WHEN Leah Shapiro takes her place behind her drum kit with her Black Rebel Motorcycle Club bandmates and peers out onto Maitland Showground in two weeks time, she admits it'll feel unlike any other show.
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For many of the punters at the Under The Southern Stars festival it'll be their first major concert since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago.
It'll be Shapiro's first gig since Black Rebel Motorcycle Club last toured in July 2019.
"It's gonna be surreal, definitely," Shapiro tells Weekender over Zoom from California. "I'm trying not to overthink it, because that just leads to being no good. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit nervous."
Just getting to the opening leg of the travelling roadshow festival, Under The Southern Stars, will be an accomplishment in itself. Under The Southern Stars - which also features American bands Cheap Trick and Stone Temple Pilots and British rockers Bush - was first planned for April 2020.
It's been rescheduled three times, due to various COVID outbreaks. A clash of dates with the Newcastle 500 Supercars then forced a change of location from the Newcastle Foreshore to Maitland Showground.
For Shapiro the Australian tour is about reconnecting with a part of herself she's felt detached from.
"By the end of the last tour we were definitely in need of a break," she says. "We had been going for a long time from one record to the next and weird shit happening in between. We were due for a break and getting a moment to catch our breaths, but it turned into a different one than we expected and a slightly longer one."
The Danish-raised Shapiro joined San Francisco's BRMC in 2008, replacing original drummer Nick Jago, following the release of the garage rock band's fourth album Baby 81. It's been a rocky road for Shapiro.
In between the albums Beat the Devil's Tattoo (2010), Specter at the Feast (2013) and Wrong Creatures (2017), the three-piece were gutted by the death of bassist Robert Leven Been's father and The Call frontman, Michael Been.
Been senior died in 2010 backstage at a BRMC show, where he was working as the band's sound engineer. Then in 2014 Shapiro was diagnosed with a brain condition called Chiari malformations, which affects balance and muscle strength. Shapiro underwent surgery and six months of rehabilitation to regain her ability to play drums.
There's a sort of uncontrolled unpredictability and wildness to it.
- Leah Shapiro
Through all the obstacles BRMC remain one of the survivors of the frenzied garage rock revival of the early 2000s, when the likes of The Strokes, The White Stripes and The Vines - and an excited music press - led a return to '60s and '70s-influenced rock'n'roll.
BRMC's self-titled debut spawned the adrenaline-raising singles Whatever Happened To My Rock 'N' Roll (Punk Song) and Spread Your Love which blended the sonic fury of The Stooges and Sonic Youth with the psychedelic fuzz of Dinosaur Jnr.
In 2021 BRMC celebrated the 20-year anniversary of their debut, and while Shapiro didn't play on the recording, she maintains a strong connection to the album.
"I respect that I wasn't involved in the making of those songs and it was a chapter of the band that happened before me." she says. "I love those records, and some of the songs off those earlier records are my favourite ones to play live.
"I don't know if I have ownership as much as I have an appreciation."
Musical trends have shifted significantly since the early 2000s when BRMC were among the world's coolest bands. The relevance of rock music is continually questioned in an era that's become increasingly dominated by hip-hop, pop and EDM, but Shapiro remains a believer. A believer in the purity of rock'n'roll.
"There's a sort of uncontrolled unpredictability and wildness to it," she says. "I personally find it really easy to connect to that energy, especially live. I love that, but that's just me."
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club play Under The Southern Stars with Cheap Trick (US), Stone Temple Pilots (US), Bush (UK), Rose Tattoo and Electric Mary.
Tour dates: Maitland Showground (March 11); Foreshore Reserve, Hastings (March 12); Lowe Oval, Yarrawonga (March 13); Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne (March 16); Bonython Park, Adelaide (March 17 to 19); WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong (March 22); Quodos Bank Arena, Sydney (March 23); Kings Beach Ampitheatre, Caloundra (March 25); Southport Sharks, Gold Coast (March 26) and Riverstage, Brisbane (March 27).