Thirty years after Bringing Down the Horse turned The Wallflowers into one of the defining American rock bands of the ’90s, Jakob Dylan and company are finally heading to Australia.
Remarkably, this is The Wallflowers’ first Australian tour. Presented by Love Police, the five-date December run will take the band through Melbourne, Thirroul, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide, with Bringing Down the Horse performed in full each night to mark its 30th anniversary.
Released in May 1996, Bringing Down the Horse was the record that changed everything for the band. It reached number four on the Billboard 200, went quadruple platinum in the US and made its mark in Australia too, reaching number nine on the ARIA Albums Chart and earning Gold certification.
Much of that success came riding on ‘One Headlight’, a song that has stubbornly refused to remain confined to the decade that produced it. It topped the Billboard singles chart and collected two Grammys in 1998, while ‘6th Avenue Heartache’, ‘The Difference’ and ‘Three Marlenas’ helped turn Bringing Down the Horse into considerably more than a one-hit album.
But The Wallflowers aren’t coming all this way to play just one classic record. The shows will also feature Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ 1982 album Long After Dark performed in its entirety, acknowledging a band and songwriter who had a formative influence on Dylan.
That connection runs deeper than a convenient anniversary-tour pairing. Dylan inducted Tom Petty into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, and the influence of Petty’s economical, distinctly American approach to rock’n’roll has long been audible in The Wallflowers’ own music.
Dylan has spent the three decades since Bringing Down the Horse carving out a career that has frequently wandered beyond The Wallflowers. In 2018 he appeared in the documentary Echo in the Canyon, exploring the music that emerged from Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon while working with artists including Beck, Cat Power, Norah Jones, Neil Young and Eric Clapton.
The Wallflowers themselves have continued touring, including joining Eric Clapton on his US dates in 2025, having previously shared the road with Clapton, The Who and The Rolling Stones.
For Australian fans, however, there has always been one fairly substantial omission from that touring history. Despite Bringing Down the Horse finding an audience here at the time, The Wallflowers never made it to Australia.
Thirty years later, that is finally being rectified. And rather than simply dipping into the record that introduced them to so many listeners, they’re bringing the whole damn horse.
The Wallflowers 2026 Australian tour
Friday 4 December – Palais Theatre, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 5 December – Anita’s Theatre, Thirroul NSW
Sunday 6 December – Liberty Hall, Sydney NSW
Tuesday 8 December – Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane QLD
Wednesday 9 December – Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide SA
Go HERE for tickets.
