2ser Gig Guide

Oxford Art Factory is celebrating its 18th birthday, listing the “Coming-of-Age Party” on Saturday, 13 September and its FREE entry.

Live performances from, Miss Kaninna, EXEK, Devaura, Girl and Girl, Liquid Zoo, Jerome Blaze & Full Band, 198archie & Guests, GAUCI, No News, Father’s Favourite, Jacob Turl and xiao xiao.

DJ sets from, KING OPP, Debaser DJs, Prop Records DJs, Matilda Violet, Psyched As DJs. DJ Reenie.

Currently in the midst of a riotous UK tour performing songs about “f*cking and drinking and hanging landlords,” acclaimed Irish outfit The Mary Wallopers are thrilled to announce their live return to Sydney this September!

In between inducing mosh pits at Glastonbury and selling-out serious venues across the UK, US, Europe and beyond, it’s been a heady rise for the Dundalk outfit, their packed live schedule over the past two years seeing their popularity ascend sky high. Quickly establishing themselves as a live phenomenon not to be missed, the band are set to return to our shores – proudly presented by Frontier Touring. Led by brothers Charles and Andrew Hendy, The Mary Wallopers first shot to fame back in 2020, thanks to their lockdown YouTube shows, which saw the group build a makeshift pub in their home, livestreaming (often hilarious) trad sessions. Since then, and thanks to relentless gigging across the globe and the band’s irreverent, gleeful rebelliousness, the Wallopers have reached new heights… as recent profiles in in The Guardian UK and NME this month attest:

‘The Mary Wallopers have become a word-of-mouth live phenomenon. At the heart of this is their ability to move seamlessly between crackling cabaret-style banter, raucous tales of pintmen, laughter and getting laid, chaotic, Pogues-style punk velocity – limbs and spilled pints everywhere – and pin-drop silence for heartrending songs about the vicious crimes of the Catholic church, or renowned Irish Traveller singer Pecker Dunne’ – The Guardian

‘In just a few years, the group have amassed an international following with their rambunctiously spirited interpretations of the Irish songs of yesteryear, injecting a thrillingly contemporary political zeal into a songbook that was dying to be dragged into the 21st century’ – NME

The Mary Wallopers take on century old songs and new blistering originals and are truly one of a kind. The upcoming tour follows the band’s acclaimed 2024 second album Irish Rock ‘n’ Roll, and recent EP Home Boys Home.

Hearts out, arms aloft, live on stage The Mary Wallopers are full of fire and incendiary energy. Don’t miss these shows!

Brant Bjork Trio return to Australia and NZ this September to promote the release of their first album in the current Trio format, “Once Upon a Time in the Desert”. With long time collaborator Mario Lalli (Yawning Man, Fatso Jetson) on the Bass the band creates a fluid heavy groove that shows why they are collectively known as the forefathers of Desert Rock.  Brant Bjork has spent over a quarter-century at the epicenter of Californian desert rock. A founding member and composer in the heavily influential desert band Kyuss as well as propelling the seminal fuzz of Fu Manchu from 1994-2001. Over the last 30 years embarking on his solo career as a singer, guitarist, composer and bandleader, founding his own record labels (DUNA, LOW DESERT PUNK) and more, his history is a winding narrative of relentless, unflinching creativity.

Florescent Fest is all spring-themed, celebrating the coming of warmer weather and flowering nature with a stacked lineup of acts.

Headlining Florescent Fest is Sunbeam Sound Machine, a Melbourne/Naarm-based band known for their beloved psychedelic pop, marking their first full band show in Sydney/Eora since 2022.

Supported by Honeydrip, local funk and soul groovers, Shluffy, Bundjalung-based indie soul group with their first show ever in Sydney/Eora, Lindsey, local folk band and finally, Clift, local bedroom eco punk-folk band.

Doors open 2pm at The Chippo Hotel, Chippendale.

Mia Lovelock will launch Feathers in Sydney at Knox Street Bar in Chippendale on Friday, 19 September, with special guest Llaney Jane.

Lovelock shares her immersive performances, known for blurring the lines between disciplines, with her shows transforming stages into spaces of shared story and cultural celebration. You’re in for an intimate experience that only Mia Lovelock can provide.

Doors open at 7pm.

Now Would Be A Good Time, (out July 25th) the debut album by Folk Bitch Trio, tells vivid, visceral stories. The songs are modern, youthful, singing acutely through dissociative daydreams and galling breakups, sexual fantasies and media overload, all the petty resentments and minor humiliations of being in your early twenties in the 2020s. 

Heide Peverelle (they/them), Jeanie Pilkington (she/her) and Gracie Sinclair (she/her) have known each other since high school, and first started singing together five years ago. Pilkington grew up with two musician parents and brings formative memories of watching them perform, of listening to Gillian Welch and Lucinda Williams. Peverelle spends their spare time making art and furniture; those hobbies, as well as their love of pop music old and new, articulate a love for the tactile, the home-grown and the hand-made. Sinclair is the self-proclaimed jester of the group, but her taste skews dark, gothic, baroque and dramatic, expressed as a love of opera and ballet as well as musicians as wide-ranging as Patti Smith, Nirvana and Tchaikovsky.

Folk Bitch Trio have a shared sense of humour that is embedded deep in their music and that sets it alight, safe from the self-serious traps of the genre. Now Would Be A Good Time is funny and darkly ironic in the manner of writers like Mary Gaitskill or Otessa Moshfegh. Recording in Auckland with Tom Healy (Tiny Ruins, Marlon Williams) during the winter of 2024, the band built out these songs with minimalist, idiosyncratic arrangements. Recording to tape was the final missing thread in bringing the album to life.  Voices and guitar took centre stage, and the production voice the band struggled to articulate through digital recording was brought to fruition. Finally, they sounded like Folk Bitch Trio.   

The strongest link between the trio, aside from friendship, is music. “We all talked about loving music when we were growing up, and knowing we wanted music to be a big part of our lives,” says Pilkington. “But for me at least, when I looked into the future, it was this relatively mysterious thing.” Joining forces as a group demystified that future.  “When we started singing together,” they continue, “it immediately became the vehicle for my songs and my love of music, and we all had that in common.” That feeling—of music as an innate calling, as opposed to hobby or folly—was justified: Folk Bitch Trio have already toured across Australia, Europe and the US, supporting bands as disparate as King Gizzard, Alex G and Julia Jacklin and signing with iconic indie label Jagjaguwar.

These are the stakes: Learning how to live a life free of lovesickness and loser exes, when to sink into contemporary nihilism and when to have a laugh with your friends, and why being alive can feel so ephemeral and unreal. In this sense, Now Would Be A Good Time feels like a manual for modern living: a missive from three proud Folk Bitches finding beauty and wisdom where they can, together.

Sydney/Eora, singer, songwriter and producer Blain Cunneen celebrates the launch of his latest album “Only Wanting” on 25 September at Low 302 in Surry Hills.

Cunneen has his roots in jazz, songwriting and sonic experimentation, carving a unique space in Australia’s musical landscape. His latest album reflects his evolution across every corner of the music industry, crafted under his own creative direction as the album is entirely self-produced.

Supported by Grace Turner, Melbourne based singer-songwriter crafting sounds of folk and raw indie sensibility and Hawkesbury artist, Jack Millar, returning from his 4 year hiatus from live performances.

Studio 178 are taking over the Lord Gladstone Hotel with three stages, nine bands, DJs in the courtyard all day, full of psych, DIY, punk and rock from 5pm ’til late.

Bands performing are, Nice Biscuit (QLD), Fungus, Cold Heat, O.M.R., Arugula (QLD), MEOW MEOW AND THE SMACKOUTS, Finlay Ross, The Med Heads, and Ugly Mug.

DJs are, Power Board, Dave Stuart, Gorilla Warfare, Double Happiness, DJ Dad and On The Noise.

Georgia Mulligan is a Sydney-based singer-songwriter blending styles and sounds that encompass indie rock, folk and pop; weaving them effortlessly together with Georgia’s bewitching vocals and powerful command of language.

She is playing at The Vanguard on October 3 in support of her new album, Unheaven.

Her album touches on themes of loss, estrangement, fear and the many faces of love; it’s a celebration of resilience which emerged at the intersection of daily life and creative practice.

Doors open 7pm

Sydney post-punk four-piece Mac the Knife hit the road in celebration of their debut EP Down to the Wire — a raw, six-track coming-of-age record capturing themes of heartbreak, identity, mental health, love, and the pressure of modern life. Featuring breakthrough singles Golden, Icarus, and Torn to Shreds, the EP also introduces new cuts like I Live in Awe and the emotionally-charged title track. Co-produced with Wade Keighran and engineered by drummer Jonny Sandstrom between the Blue Mountains and their own studio, Down to the Wire showcases the band’s sharp songwriting, unfiltered emotion, and collaborative spirit — delivered live with the same electricity that’s earned them a spot as one of Australia’s most promising new acts.

Event description

Music in Exile’s Spring Fling tour arrives in Sydney with an evening of warm, captivating performances at The Vanguard.

Artists featured are, Ausecuma Beats, a multicultural ensemble from Melbourne, bringing together musicians from Australia, Senegal, Cuba, Mali and Guinea.

Ashkan Shafiei, an Iranian-born percussionist and composer crafting meditative, textural soundscapes.

Maryam Rahmani, an Iranian multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, blending Persian classical music with contemporary expression.

Presented by Music in Exile – a not-for-profit label and artist services organisation championing culturally and linguistically diverse artists – Spring Fling offers an intimate evening of connection and discovery.

PEOPLE MOVER
To celebrate the release of their debut album ‘Cane Trash’, Meanjin/Brisbane trio People Mover hit the road this October. ‘Cane Trash’ is a collection of songs shaped by the Queensland heat permeating through childhood homes and share houses. It captures the messiness of being in your twenties through melodies that stick like a seatbelt in summer. After playing their first UK shows in 2024, People Mover are bringing ‘Cane Trash’ home to Australian audiences following the album’s release this September.

BIRTHDAY GIRL
Birthday Girl’s 2024 debut album ‘No Hard Feelings’ is a dreamy collection of melancholic guitar pop. Their transporting combination of angelic vocals, world-weary tales, and guitars weaving sophisticated melodies follows on from the sound of their previous EP ‘Lucky’.

LIBRARY SIESTA
Charming five-piece Library Siesta have a knack for writing lo-fi indie lullabies that encompass you with their warm, life-affirming melodic parables. Never afraid of the shadows, but always delivered lighter than air, their 2022 album ‘What You’re Worth’ is a dream-pop gem.

Back from their three-week tour in Europe and fresh from releasing their latest single ‘Beat to Beat’, Naarm/Melbourne-based six piece band Gut Health return to Australia for some headline shows.

With varied sonic backgrounds from punk to jazz, and influenced by queer rave culture, Gut Health creatively merge these worlds together, presenting a unique mix of danceable art-pop/post-punk which mirrors the ethos of New York’s No-Wave revolution of the late ‘70s.

They will be playing their new single and old fan favourites alongside a slew of unreleased material, road-tested across European festivals and headline shows.  Expect to hear their iconic post-punk, dance-punk and chaotic noise in full force at the Oxford Art Factory Gallery Bar on 24 October.

Doors at 7pm

Come see Five Hertz, Soarers, Bad Absalom at Monster Mouse… be early, bands start at 8.30pm.
All Ages show

We are a licensed on-premise venue which allows under 18s can attend, but absolutely no underage drinking.

Parents are advised to attend to see if this is the right venue for your kid.

$15 on the door

$13.33 pre sale + fee

Bring your own water vessel

Disrespectful behaviour will not be tolerated.

Presale ends 8.00pm on event day. Door sales only after that time.

This show takes place on Gadigal land.

Minor Gold is a songwriting duo consisting of Tracy McNeil and Dan Parsons, who have already individually carved out successful careers, combining their skills on their sophomore album, “Way to the Sun”.

The album is a lush, harmony-drenched blend of cosmic country & folk, sounding breezy but also lustrous and bright, written across Australia and North America and recorded at Ultimate Hair Farm studio in Glendale, California.

All these sounds you can expect to hear at the Butchers Brew Bar in Marrickville on 2 of November, doors at 7pm

Following the announce of their highly anticipated fourth album, ‘Fairyland Codex,’ out June 20^th, 2025, Genre-bending Tropical Fuck Storm are taking their new music on the road, touring Aud in October and November 2025. The songs on ‘Fairyland Codex’ immerse us in the chaos of a fateful landslide, picking out the characters that litter the impending collapse of society. The live renditions can’t be missed.

American musician, writer, visual artist, and filmmaker, David Byrne will return to Australia and New Zealand in January 2026 in support of his new album Who Is The Sky? – out September 5, 2025, via Remote Control/Matador. 

Last in Australia and New Zealand in 2018 for his critically acclaimed American Utopia tour, David’s brand-new live show will comprise of 13 musicians, singers and dancers, including members of the American Utopia band, all of whom will be mobile throughout the set. The North American tour begins in September, with Australia & New Zealand dates kicking off in January 2026, presented by Frontier Touring. 

Who Is the Sky? is David’s first new album since 2018’s award-winning American Utopia. The album was produced by the Grammy-winning Kid Harpoon (Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus), while its 12 songs were arranged by the members of New York-based chamber ensemble Ghost Train Orchestra. 

Musical friends old and new, including St. Vincent, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, The Smile drummer Tom Skinner and American Utopia percussionist Mauro Refosco, also make appearances on Who Is the Sky?, which is led by the infectious single “Everybody Laughs.”   

In 2023, as his triumphant American Utopia era came to a close after morphing from an album and tour into an acclaimed Broadway show and then a Spike Lee-directed HBO film, Byrne began jotting down the occasional groove, chord or melody. It had been a minute. 

Byrne’s attempts to answer those weighty questions can be found on Who Is The Sky?, which builds upon the optimistic themes laid out by American Utopia and its supporting tour, and more specifically spelled out by the Grammy-winning Broadway show and subsequent movie. With this offering, Byrne continues his lifelong exploration of human connection and the potential for societal unity against the chaotic backdrop of the world. Who Is the Sky? is particularly cinematic, humorous and joyful, but often with a lesson baked in – that love is unexplainable, that enlightenment means very different things to different people and that it’s always a good idea to moisturise, whether you wake up the next morning with skin like a baby or not. Most importantly, the songs evince Byrne’s gift for riding the razor’s edge of avant-garde and accessible pop. 

New Zealand’s The Beths are playing a headline show at the Roundhouse, fresh off the release of their latest album “Straight Line Was A Lie” released in August last year, written in Los Angeles and recorded in their hometown of Auckland.

The Beths are, Elizabeth Stokes, Jonathan Pearce, Benjamin Sinclair, and Tristan Deck, and their latest album comes three years after their previous album “Expert In a Dying Field”.

This tour marks the band’s first Australian shows since their sold-out 2025 run, and will play at the Roundhouse.

Doors open at 7:30pm