John Butler

Northcote Theater

Relationships evolve and change, and as John Butler will attest, sometimes great art comes from that pain and evolution.  Having just released his latest work PRISM, John descended on Melbourne’s Northcote Theater to share his new album.

Opening for Butler is the always radiant Emma Donovan, dressed casually in a dress and denim jacket. Accompanied by only her guitarist, Emma sings a beautiful rendition of Auntie Ruby’s  ” Yarian Mititji” a soulful track that silences the audience. Before leaving the stage she pays respect to Uncle Archie with a rendition of ” Wash My Soul In The River’s Flow”, a jazz version of the timeless classic.

John Butler arrives for his set, opening with ” Losing You”. The crowd begins to dance and move in unison as Butler hits us with a heap of new songs from the album. The catchy new single” Tripping” gets everyone moving. Playing a few classics ” Zebra”, ” Treat Yo Mumma” and ” Wade in the Water” keeps the audience happy dancing along.

Bringing out Emma to cover another of Uncle Archie’s songs, they present a beautiful version of ” We Won’t Cry”. Bringing out his wife Mamma Kin, they team up for ” Losing You” to finish up the set.

John Butler is one of those performers that no matter how many times you’ve seen him, he just gets better and better. He brings joy to each performance, sends a prayer out to the Universe and offers music that is inspirational. Each time you leave a John Butler performance, you leave a little better than when you went in – his music is just that powerful.

Machine Gun Kelly Announces 2026 Australia and New Zealand Tour

The rumours are true – Machine Gun Kelly is heading to Australia and New Zealand in 2026

After Universal Music Australia teased tour plans last month, the US songwriter has confirmed he will be heading our way in April next year.

Arena shows have been locked in for Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Auckland. MGK will be joined on the tour by US hip hop artist honestav.

The run comes in support of his latest seventh studio album, LostAmericana, which hit #3 on the ARIA Albums Chart.

The release of Lost Americana follows 2022’s Mainstream Sellout, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and featured collaborations with Willow, Lil Wayne, and Bring Me the Horizon.

General onsale begins Thursday, September 25th at 4pm AEST and 4pm NZST. Click here for more details and check out all of the dates below.

MACHINE GUN KELLY 2026 AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND TOUR

The Beards

Making their triumphant return to the stage, Adelaide sensation The Beards took to the Corner Hotel stage to reunite Melbourne fans in a love for beards once again.

The hirsute musicians made Melbourne laugh with their classic brand of comedy and entertainment with songs like’ Born with a Beard’, ‘ This Beard Stays’ and ‘ Stroking my Beard’ , while climbing out into the audience to share beard rubs.

Going as far to teach everyone a new song – the easy B.E.A.R.D – which is easy enough to chant and gets chanted multiple times throughout the evening. However, the crowd has fallen in love with guitarist Tom and chant ‘ TOM, TOM, TOM’ at any given opportunity, which is utterly hilarious.

Wrapping up the evening with ‘ Two Mums’, The Beards have made a triumphant return to the stage, delighted audiences and proven that you can have an entire set list of songs about beards, and you will endeavor to make people smile and sing along.

Words by Amanda Lee Starkey

Paleface Swiss

Northcote Theatre

Melbourne welcomed Paleface Swiss back into its chilly arms last night at the iconic Northcote
Theatre. Following on from their debut Australian appearance supporting In Hearts Wake in
2023, the Swiss quartet are back and doing another lap of our country celebrating their new
album CURSED.

Our openers for this evening were Lune, who are unashamedly my favorite Melbourne band.
Their signature mix of groovy riffs and thunderous breakdowns was the perfect way to warm up
the 1400-person sold out room. Vocalist Nathaniel Smith soared from high pitched wails down
to demonic growls while keeping the crowd engaged, commanding erratic headbanging in time
with bassist David Freeland and a wall of death during Exit (Inward). The band tore through
singles Progeny and Manipulator, as well as treating patrons to an unreleased track filled to the
brim with technical drums from Harrison Mills and chugging guitars from Krys Smith. It’s a
warming feeling to see Lune play bigger and bigger shows and get the recognition they
deserve.

Traveling alongside our headliners from Europe, Nasty were the main support act. This is the
band I knew least about tonight, but I left thoroughly impressed. Boasting a sound that is
quintessentially beat-down hardcore, complete with pinched guitars from Paddy Gajdzik and
rumbling bass lines from Tom Huschka, the quartet had heads banging from their first note as
fists and crowdsurfers went flying.

Tracks Total Domination and Shokka were met with a rowdy
mosh pit and an undulating wave of patrons pushing forward as vocalist Matthi Tarnath
dropped down to the barrier to offer his mic to grab, while drummer Nash Anderson stood up
from his stool to engage with the crowd between crashing cymbal hits and double kicks.
With a career spanning two decades yet never having toured Australia until now, Nasty have
amassed quite the growing fan base that eagerly await their return.

With the lights dimmed, the four band members that make up Paleface emerged onto the stage
and looked out upon the cheering crowd, taking a moment to soak in the excitement and
passion emanating from the room. Launching into track Hatred, the energy on stage matched
that of the crowd, with vocalist Marc “Zelli” Zellweger jumping across the space and putting his
whole body into each headbang in time to the hard hits of drummer Cassi Toma. While their
music is aggressive and angry, the band themselves couldn’t be further from that.

When Zelliand guitarist Yannick Lehmann spoke between songs, they were especially thankful for the
patrons for being here, humbled that they were on the other side of the world playing one of
their largest ever headline shows to “probably the best crowd we ever had” according to their
Instagram immediately following the set.

Closing with Love Burns and a semi-impromptu encore of Deathtouch, bassist Tommy Lee leapt across the barrier to crowd surf during the final moments of their set, and Zelli gave high-fives and fist bumps to the entire front row, proving once again that their gratitude and thankfulness for their fans are of most importance for
Paleface Swiss.

Behind the lens Aimee Rixon

Sabaton

Margaret Court Arena

Hailing from Falun, Sweden Sabaton headline their first arena tour since 2013. With a sold out crowd streaming in to witness Amaranthe opening, the cities metal heads have converged for a night of sheer power metal. With songs ‘ Fearless’, ‘ Digital World’ and ‘ The Catalyst’ to warm up the crowd, Amaranthe prove to Australian audiences again why they are a force to be reckoned with.  Playing a full hour set, they wrap up with ” Archangel” , ” That Song (with snippet from Queen’s “We Will Rock You”) that gets the crowd chanting  they finish up with “Drop Dead Cynical”

As Joakim Brodén, bassist Pär Sundström, guitarists Oskar Montelius and Rikard Sundén, and drummer Richard Larsson, run out on stage, the crowd begins to roar in excitement. Opening to ‘ Ghost Division’ the band dive right into things, getting to business.

Front man  Brodén is genuinely enjoying himself, as fans crowd surf and mosh to popular tracks “The Red Baron” , “Great War” , “Fields of Verdu” and “Bismarck”. Between tracks Brodén makes jokes about how he talks too much, he points out fans who have come dressed as him, and has the crowd chanting ‘ Banana’ like a bunch of minions when he spots two people dressed as bananas.

Instructing the crowd to turn on their phone flash lights, the stadium is bathed in light for ‘Christmas Truce’, a rare sight at a metal show and it’s absolutely breath taking. Fans sing each note to the song, united in this one moment. Leading into ‘ Cliffs of Gallipoli”  Brodén talks about how in cities all over the world certain songs will resonate with the location, and performing a song written about the battle where so many Australian lives were lost seems rather poignant and emotional.

Sabaton are one of those acts that come to entertain, not just to play music and watching the banter between the band and the audience is certainly fantastic to witness. Die hard fans and newcomers are in for a good time when a band is this enthralling to watch.

letlive

Max Watts, Melbourne

Renowned for their genre-defying sound and electrifying high-energy live performances, letlive. have made a  triumphantly return to stages one more time, reuniting with fans and reigniting the fire that defined a generation of alternative music. The trailblazing progressive soul punk band from Los Angeles brought all the passion and fire to Melbourne.

We sent our photographer Amanda along to capture the action.