News: Dinosaur Jr. announce Australian and New Zealand tour for January 2027

Dinosaur Jr. are heading back Down Under, and they’re bringing a fresh batch of guitar noise with them.

The American alternative rock pioneers have announced an Australian and New Zealand tour for January 2027, celebrating the release of their thirteenth studio album, There Near.

J Mascis, Lou Barlow and Murph will kick things off at Auckland Town Hall on 16 January before crossing the Tasman for shows in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Sydney fans can catch the trio at the Hordern Pavilion on 21 January.

Few bands have left a bigger mark on alternative rock than Dinosaur Jr. Formed in Massachusetts in 1984, the trio helped lay the groundwork for the explosion of American indie rock in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Their combination of distorted guitars, bruising rhythms and Mascis’s famously laid-back vocals influenced a generation of musicians, including Nirvana and countless bands that followed.

Their latest album, There Near, is the sixth studio record since the classic line-up reunited in 2005. Recorded at Mascis’s Bisquiteen Studio in Massachusetts, it finds the trio doing what they do best: turning enormous guitar riffs, ragged melodies and thunderous drumming into something unmistakably Dinosaur Jr.

New tracks including Several Got Away and Blowin’ Up will join a catalogue packed with alternative rock essentials. Expect favourites such as Feel The Pain, Freak Scene, Out There, Watch The Corners and their celebrated take on The Cure’s Just Like Heaven.

The tour marks their first visit since 2024, when they celebrated the 30th anniversary of their 1993 album Where You Been with Australian and New Zealand audiences.

With Mascis’s towering guitar sound, Barlow’s restless basslines and Murph’s relentless drumming, Dinosaur Jr. remain one of alternative rock’s most distinctive live acts.

Four decades in, the amps are still turned up and the riffs are still doing the talking.