Sleater-Kinney | Credit: Randy Holmes/Disney via Getty Images SLEATER-KINNEY

Sleater-Kinney Announce 2024 Australian Tour

February 20, 2024

Sleater-Kinney have announced their first Australian tour in eight years, set to return to the country in May 2024. The band are currently on a world tour in support of their 11th studio album Little Rope, which was released last month. Prior to their run in Australia, the band will also stop in New Zealand for a show in Auckland, taking place at the city’s Powerstation on Wednesday May 15th.

Little Rope saw the band enter the studio with acclaimed producer John Congleton for the first time. Its January release was pre-empted by three singles: ‘Hell’ in October 2023, ‘Say It Like You Mean It’ in November 2023 and ‘Untidy Creature’ in early January 2024.

A pre-sale for the Little Rope tour will begin from 10am local time on Wednesday February 21 via the band’s newsletter, which can be signed up for here. General sale for the tour will commence on Friday February 23, again at 10am local time. A full list of the band’s Australian tour dates can be found below.

Sleater-Kinney – ‘Say It Like You Mean It’

Since the Portland indie-rock outfit were last in Australia circa 2016, which included a performance as part of the Sydney Opera House‘s All About Women festival and a set at that year’s Golden Plains, the band have released three studio albums: 2019’s The Center Won’t Hold, 2021’s Path of Wellness and Little Rope.

The Center Won’t Hold was the band’s final studio album to feature long-serving drummer Janet Weiss, who left the band just weeks prior to its release due to creative differences with vocalist/guitarists Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker. She has since been replaced by session and touring drummer Angie Boylan, who has performed on and off with the band since 2019.

Speaking about the split after the fact, Weiss noted that “the roles changed within the band” and that she felt as though she had become “a threat to where [Brownstein and Tucker] wanted the band to go”. She did, however, note that she wanted “what [the trio] did together to remain this pure thing” and that she didn’t “want to work out [their] disagreements in the public.”

Both Brownstein and Tucker have additionally pursued solo work away from Sleater-Kinney in the years since they were last in Australia. Brownstein has primarily focused on acting and directing, working on the 2020 St. Vincent mock-biopic The Nowhere Inn as well as shows such as Shrill and Reboot. Tucker, meanwhile, formed a side project with R.E.M.‘s Peter Buck named Filthy Friends, releasing two studio albums: 2017’s Invitation and 2019’s Emerald Valley.