Good news as the legendary The Bats are touring Australia – well, Sydney and Melbourne at this stage. Although do I note it’s around the time of Dark Mofo in Hobart so hope springs eternal. Presented by the inimitable Mistletone, the tour follows on from their magnificent release last year of ‘the album ‘Corner Coming Up’ through Flying Nun Records after a some seriously damned good singles (‘Lucky Day‘, ‘Loline‘ and ‘The Gown‘).
Fresh from a triumphant, NZ tour, The Bats will deliver the live accompaniment to their much-loved 2025 album, ‘Corner Coming Up’, alongside treasured picks from their four-decades-deep knockout catalogue.
‘Corner Coming Up’, the band’s eleventh album, was recorded with Tex Houston at Chicks Studio in Port Chalmers and charted at #1 on the IMNZ chart & #2 on the Aotearoa Music Charts. The album shows The Bats at their shimmering, melodic best; full of bright guitar lines, warm harmonies, and the band’s unmistakable Bats-ey “psych pop” mystique.
Tickets are on sale now here for the Marrickville gig and here for the Rising Festival.
The Bats formed in Christchurch in 1982. The quartet — Robert Scott, Kaye Woodward, Paul Kean and Malcolm Grant — has held the same lineup for over four decades, perhaps making them the longest‑standing unchanged band in Aotearoa history. They first emerged on the Flying Nun label in the early ’80s, blending jangly guitars and rich melodies that would come to influence alternative rock in New Zealand and around the world.
Don’t forget to read my interview with chief cook Robert Scott.
