This will be the band's first Australian shows since 2018.
In massive news for local rockers, Los Angeles punk rock legends The Bronx have announced they are returning to Australia and New Zealand in 2022, playing their first Australian shows since 2018.
The extensive tour will see The Bronx kick things off at Perth’s Amplifier on May 17, before heading to Adelaide, Newcastle, Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Geelong, wrapping things up in New Zealand in Wellington and Auckland’s Powerstation on May 31. Locally, the band will take to The Barwon Club Hotel on Saturday, May 28 after performing at 170 Russell in Melbourne on Friday, May 27.
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The last time The Bronx hit the stage in Geelong was a Tuesday night in 2018 and despite being mid-week, the BC saw stage dives, some failed backflip attempts and a crazy mosh well into the headliners 20 song setlist (you can read the full review of that show here). It was here Matt Caughthran kindly announced, “I don’t know if the Bronx is coming back to Ballarat, but I’ll tell you right now, I, 100 per cent fucking guarantee that The Bronx is coming back to Geelong.”
They certainly kept their word.
Renowned for their uncompromising, high-octane, legendary live sets, The Bronx elevate the energy everywhere they go, getting the party started with their blistering, anthemic punk rock tunes. This recent tour announcement follows the release of their chart-topping new album VI by The Bronx (released Aug 2021), which debuted at #16 on the ARIA Albums Chart, breaking their Australian chart record! It’s the band’s first album to feature former Queens Of The Stone Age drummer Joey Castillo as a member.
Forming in 2002, The Bronx released their self-titled debut album the following year and have been on the upward trajectory ever since. Over the Los Angeles-based band’s 19 year career, The Bronx have released five original albums under their original namesake, and three albums under their alter ego, Mariachi El Bronx. Both iterations of the now legendary SoCal outfit have been hailed for harnessing the “unleashed cries of youthful blue-collar anguish” (Los Angeles Times), and for writing “hard-hitting and catchy hard rock tracks” (Loudwire). The Bronx is Matt Caughthran (vocals), Joby J. Ford (guitar), Ken Horne (guitar), Brad Magers (bass) and Joey Castillo (drums).
Joining the Bronx for their first shows on Australian soil is the West London five-piece Chubby and the Gang. Made up of musicians from across the consistently thriving and criminally overlooked UK hardcore scene, Chubby and the Gang marinate its characteristic speed and sick-of-it-all energy in a mixture of 50s pop sounds. The result is a prickly take on the older, more melodic genres that punk derives from, chewing them up and spitting them out into something mangled but revitalised.
The Bronx will hit the BC in Geelong on May 28 2022. Tickets go on sale at 10am Friday, December 17 via Live Nation.