The Sydney Opera House is doubling down on its reputation as one of the country’s most adventurous music curators, adding two heavyweights from opposite ends of the indie universe to its summer lineup. On Friday 6 March, Canadian genre-melters BADBADNOTGOOD make their long-awaited Concert Hall debut, while Hannah Joy — the magnetic frontwoman of Middle Kids — will present her first-ever solo performance in the intimate Playhouse on Thursday 19 February.
For BADBADNOTGOOD, this moment has been building for more than a decade. Since first surfacing with renegade jazz reworks of Odd Future cuts in 2011, the Toronto trio have warped every expectation surrounding contemporary jazz. Their 2024 triple-suite project Mid Spiral pushed that mission even further, weaving psychedelic textures, loose-limbed jazz improvisation and hip-hop tonality into something that feels both expansive and deeply intentional. It’s no wonder they’ve become go-to collaborators for an entire generation of boundary-pushing artists — Tyler, the Creator, Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar, Blood Orange, Ghostface Killah, Baby Rose and Turnstile among them. With a catalogue that includes III, IV, Talk Memory and the viral favourite Time Moves Slow, the group’s Opera House debut promises an alchemical, free-form performance from a band that has made unpredictability its calling card.
A week earlier, Hannah Joy returns to the building where Middle Kids once stole the spotlight at Vivid LIVE and steps into a new chapter entirely. Performing solo for the first time, Joy trades her band’s widescreen indie rock for an intimate, stripped-back setting that’s set to foreground her songwriting with a new kind of vulnerability. Audiences will hear unreleased material alongside reimagined versions of Middle Kids tracks — the same songs that carried the band to international acclaim following their breakout single Edge of Town, the Elton John cosign, their Triple J Album of the Year win for Lost Friends, and the 2021 ARIA Award for Today We’re The Greatest. Their 2024 album Faith Crisis Part 1 marked a thrilling evolution for the trio, and Joy’s solo debut hints at another artistic shift entirely.
Both shows land within an already stacked summer season featuring Ludovico Einaudi, Alex G, Lucy Dacus, The Streets, Basement Jaxx, Pulp and more. It’s a fitting home for two acts that refuse to be boxed in — BADBADNOTGOOD continuing to dissolve the boundaries of modern jazz, and Hannah Joy stepping confidently into a spotlight entirely her own.
EVENT DETAILS
WHO: Hannah Joy (Middle Kids) Solo
WHEN: Thursday 19 February 2026, 9pm
WHERE: Playhouse, Sydney Opera House
TICKETS: $69.90 + booking fee
WHO: BADBADNOTGOOD
WHEN: Friday 6 March 2026, 8:30pm
WHERE: Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
TICKETS: From $89.90 + booking fee
ON-SALE
Insiders pre-sale: Tuesday 9 December, 9am AEDT
What’s On pre-sale: Wednesday 10 December, 9am AEDT
General Public on-sale: Friday 12 December, 9am AEDT
sydneyoperahouse.com // +61 2 9250 7777
