For Australia-based indie-rock band Last Dinosaurs, touring North America is nothing new. But for Lollapalooza to be the band’s first time playing at a North American festival? Now, that’s a big deal. 

Members Sean Caskey, Michael Sloane and Lachlan Caskey recently wrapped up the band’s North American tour with their July 28 set at Lollapalooza’s Bud Light Seltzer stage. It was a full-circle moment for the trio, as they began touring on May 31 at Chicago’s Bottom Lounge. 

Lachlan said North America is one of his favorite places to perform. Sloane agreed, saying he feels lucky that Lollapalooza was the band’s first time playing at a festival in the United States. 

“It’s been awesome,” Sloane said. “It’s great to be able to have people coming who don’t know you already. To come in and fill up the crowd, especially when you’re opening, it’s nice that they were able to show up for that.”

For Lachlan, performing at Lollapalooza was a significant feat for Last Dinosaurs. 

“It’s just the fact that, you know, it’s a milestone to be here, and everybody feels happy about that,” he said. 

The trio agreed that it was nice to return to performing in North America, especially after the pandemic halted live music across the globe two years ago. Sean said COVID-19 “did something” to Americans in terms of their energetic response to the band’s set. 

“Everyone was going pretty mental,” Sean said. “The last time (performing in North America) was awesome. But now, like, halfway through the set people were crowd surfing and stuff and fighting security to try and get onto the stage and stuff. Yeah, everyone was just going ballistic.”

Despite the crowd’s rambunctious spirit, Sloane said it felt amazing to tour again in North America, especially because the band’s ticket sales increased. 

“More tickets sold, more energy from the crowd — not that the other ones were lacking —  but this time around it was just like maybe people wanted to come back from the shows after COVID-19,” Sloane said. 

In November, Last Dinosaurs will release its latest LP, “From Mexico With Love,” which came to fruition during Lachlan’s time spent in Mexico quarantined. 

COVID-19 hit while Lachlan was visiting his girlfriend in Canada. Because of Australia’s numerous pandemic-related travel restrictions, he couldn’t return to his home country.  

“Australia was very, very, very strict, and I couldn’t get back to Australia, so I decided to go to Mexico where one of my friends from Australia was living, and we lived together,” he said. 

During this six-month period, Lachlan wrote a majority of “From Mexico With Love.”

“All of the skeletons of the songs have been done by me,” Lachlan said, “Whereas before, I’d only done half the songs, and prior to that, I did none of them, I just did my own bits. But we all share the same musical DNA, so it sounds like us.”

Lachlan said being from Australia is a good starting point for wanting to understand the rest of the world. As he wrote the album, he explained how his Australian upbringing, life in quarantine and experience as a well-seasoned traveler contributed to the creative process. 

“It was really just something I capitalized on,” he said. “We’ve always done it (travel), it was more of an immersion into Mexico more than anything, but I think it definitely bred a different kind of focus, the fact that it was written in lockdown.”

As the trio reflected on their Lollapalooza set, Sean said he was grateful to the audiences in the U.S. for allowing Last Dinosaurs to tour and play for them. 

“I think that we just want to do our best to perform, and there’s nothing that fills us with more satisfaction than when you see people that have been positively affected in a deep way,” Lachlan said, “and there seems to be a lot of that in the States.” 

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