Anyone who caught DRAIN at New Bloom Fest in 2025 will already have a fairly good idea of what Australia is in for next February. Stage dives, flying bodies, gang vocals and a crowd that seems determined to erase whatever distinction remains between the stage and the floor.
The Santa Cruz hardcore band will return to Australia for four headline shows in February 2027, taking in Nambour, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. This time they arrive with 2025 album ‘…IS YOUR FRIEND’ in their arsenal and another couple of years of relentless touring behind them.
DRAIN have built their reputation on making hardcore feel communal rather than exclusive. Their shows may look chaotic from the edges, but at the centre is a simple idea: everyone in the room is invited to become part of what is happening.
That attitude reaches back to the band’s beginnings in Santa Cruz in 2014. With little in the way of an established local hardcore infrastructure around them, frontman Sammy Ciaramitaro began booking shows at a coffee shop and helped cultivate a scene from the ground up. The DIY mentality survived even as DRAIN began moving onto much bigger stages.
Their 2020 debut ‘California Cursed’ landed at an extraordinarily unfortunate moment for a band whose music makes most sense in a packed room. When live music returned, however, DRAIN wasted little time making up for it. By 2022 they were headlining the opening night of Sound and Fury in front of around 6,000 people.
‘Living Proof’ followed in 2023, widening the band’s sound without abandoning hardcore’s physical impact. Punk and thrash pushed further into the mix, connecting DRAIN with both the current hardcore resurgence and an older generation raised on the point where thrash metal and hardcore first began crashing into one another.
Since then, the band’s touring schedule has taken them well beyond the DIY rooms where they started. They have played hundreds of shows, headlined festivals and even entered arenas alongside Blink-182, yet their appeal still comes down to what happens once Ciaramitaro and the band are standing in front of an audience.
The tour begins with an all-ages show at Black Box in Nambour on February 23 before moving to Brisbane’s The Triffid on February 24. DRAIN then hit Sydney’s Metro Theatre on February 26 before wrapping things up at 170 Russell in Melbourne on February 27.
TOUR DATES
Tuesday, February 23: Black Box, Nambour AA
Wednesday, February 24: The Triffid, Brisbane 18+
Friday, February 26: Metro Theatre, Sydney Lic AA
Saturday, February 27: 170 Russell, Melbourne 18+
DAL Pre-Sale: Thursday, September 3 @ 12pm AEST
General On-Sale: Friday, September 4 @ 11am Local Time
DAL pre-sale begins Thursday, September 3 at 12pm AEST, with general tickets available from 11am local time on Friday, September 4.
Go HERE for tickets.
