RESOLVING THE LEDGER
This is one outlet's own report from Billboard — the article as it was filed. Other outlets are covering the same event; open the full story to compare every source side by side.
See the full story · 1 sources
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have announced a 2026 Australian tour, anchored by a two-day, band-curated Croxton Block Party in Melbourne and featuring a late-night rave set in Sydney.
The run opens Oct. 13 at Anita’s Theatre in Thirroul, followed by a headline show at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion on Oct. 14 — both with support from Xiao Xiao — and a separate late show the same night at Sydney’s Liberty Hall billed as a “rave set.” The tour then moves to Melbourne for the second edition of The Croxton Block Party on Oct. 17-18, a two-day event the band has curated and will headline with a three-hour set each night.
For the Block Party, King Gizzard have programmed a bill weighted toward the Australian underground and a handful of international peers. The Oct. 17 date features Japanese pop-punk mainstays Shonen Knife, Byron Bay psych group Babe Rainbow, Heavy Moss — the project fronted by King Gizzard bassist Lucas Harwood — plus B3LLY, Moktar, Techno666 and a solo modular-synth set from frontman Stu Mackenzie. The Oct. 18 date features Sydney rock band C.O.F.F.I.N, Glyconic, Gut Health, ORB, Public Figures and Moktar.
The Block Party returns after debuting in 2025, converting the Croxton’s carpark into a festival site. King Gizzard have a long association with the venue, which the venue said dates to the band’s first show there in December 2015 and includes a 2016 residency and a 2020 bushfire benefit. Ticket buyers will contribute to a conservation initiative: through a partnership with climate agency FEAT, $1 from every Block Party ticket will support habitat restoration on Lungtalanana Island in Tasmania, a Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre-led project aimed at reintroducing the Bass Strait wombat and long-nosed potoroo.
The tour arrives during an especially active stretch for one of rock’s most prolific acts. Earlier this month the band announced its 28th studio album, the hard-electronic Alien Metal , due later this year on its own p(doom) Records and trailed by lead single “Level 5.”
Since forming in Melbourne in 2010, the seven-piece has built one of the most singular catalogues in contemporary rock, cycling through genres — microtonal psychedelia on Flying Microtonal Banana , thrash metal on Infest the Rats’ Nest , and ambient and acid house on 2023’s The Silver Cord — while releasing at a pace few acts attempt, including five albums in 2017 alone.
That productivity has translated to steady U.S. chart presence: the band has placed multiple titles on the Billboard 200, topped Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart, and reached the top 10 of both the Top Rock Albums and Alternative Albums charts.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard — Australia 2026
Oct. 13 — Thirroul — Anita’s Theatre (with Xiao Xiao)
Oct. 14 — Sydney — Hordern Pavilion (with Xiao Xiao)
Oct. 14 — Sydney — Liberty Hall (late show, rave set)
Oct. 17 — Melbourne — The Croxton Block Party
Oct. 18 — Melbourne — The Croxton Block Party
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.