If you care about adventurous, boundary-pushing performance, JOLT Art's Autumn program is the season you've been waiting for.
Running March through May, the JOLT Autumn Season spans everything from avant garde noise to classical Indian tabla, acousmatic opera to stand-up comedy; all threaded through JOLT’s commitment to neurodiverse artists and pushing sound into unexpected territory.
Anchored at JOLTED Arts Space in Northcote (342 High Street), the season also spreads across The Substation, Northcote Social Club, Brunswick Music Festival and beyond.
Before diving into the full lineup, four nights stand out from the pack…
JOLT Arts Autumn Season 2026
- Where: JOLTED Arts Space (342 High Street, Northcote) and various venues
- When: 7 March – 31 May 2026
- Tickets: Via individual event links here
Full season lineup:
- 7 March — The Amplified Elephants, Absorbed Festival, Miscellanea CBD
- 8 March — The Amplified Elephants performing Mysterioso Blue Adagio, Brunswick Music Festival, Cross Street Music Hall
- 8 March — HUH (JPN) + Sayaka Botanic (JPN) + Lucas Abella + Mia Alexander, Absorbed Festival, Miscellanea CBD
- 10 March — HUH (JPN) + Sayaka Botanic (JPN): Collaborations with Guests, Make It Up Club, Fitzroy
- 13 March — Sayaka Botanic + HUH + )-(u||!c|< and the BOLT Ensemble + Guests, The Substation, Newport
- 20 March — Voiceworks presenting Quits, JOLTED Arts Space
- 21 March — DYAD performing The Overton Ladder, JOLTED Arts Space
- 28 March — I Hold the Lion’s Paw + )-(u||!c|< and the BOLT Ensemble, JOLTED Arts Space
- 9–12, 14, 16–18 April — Le Scatterman by )-(u||!c|<, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, JOLTED Arts Space
- 26 April — Slow Gun Exhibition Opening, JOLTED Arts Space (open Saturdays/Sundays through 30 May)
- 29 April — Mike Parr + )-(u||!c|< and Machines + Steven Hagiliassis, Northcote Social Club
- 2 May — Naarm Underground featuring Tumi the Be, JOLTED Arts Space
- 23 May — Bobby Singh (tabla) + Guests, JOLTED Arts Space
- 27 May — I Hold the Lion’s Paw + The Amplified Elephants + )-(u||!c|< and the BOLT Ensemble, Northcote Social Club
- 29–31 May — Ambuscade: Acousmatic Opera, JOLTED Arts Space
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
JOLT Season focus events
While every night in this season is worth your time, four events have been pulled out for a deeper dive before we get to the full lineup.
The Amplified Elephants performing Mysterioso Blue Adagio
- Where: Cross Street Music Hall, Brunswick
- When: 8 March, doors 3:30pm, show 4pm
- Tickets: here
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Mysterioso Blue Adagio is built around a single image: Earthrise, the 1968 NASA photograph taken by Apollo 8 astronauts on Christmas Eve; the first time humanity saw Earth rising over the Moon’s horizon. The Amplified Elephants have taken that image and asked what it might mean to witness all of humanity rising up over the horizon when you’re someone who lives with a neurodiversity. The result is a 60-minute immersive electronic work, hypnotic and unhurried, performed by ensemble members Robyn McGrath, Teagan Connor, Esther Tuddenham and Jay Euesden. Released across two albums in 2025 on Hullick Studios, this is the live realisation of one of the ensemble’s most ambitious projects to date.
Sayaka Botanic + HUH + )-(u||!c|< and the BOLT Ensemble + Guests
- Where: The Substation, Newport
- When: 13 March, 7:30pm
- Tickets: here
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Two of Japan’s most ferocious touring acts land at The Substation for one of the more genuinely unpredictable nights of the season. Sayaka Botanic has spent over a decade carving out a reputation in Tokyo’s underground experimental scene, known for electronically processed violin performances that treat sound as a physical force. Alongside her, noise duo HUH — Kyosuke Terada and Takuma Mori, bring their freeform freakout approach to guitar, voice and drums, music that is fierce, ephemeral and impossible to anticipate. Locally, )-(u||!c|< and the BOLT Ensemble reimagine Oz rock through an improvised electro-acoustic lens, joined by Tim Reid on acoustic guitar and Esther Tuddenham on dance. Motswana poet and rapper Tumi the Be closes the night, bringing sharp personal reflections on urban life in Australia. Presented by The Substation, JOLT Arts and Pitch/R.
Le Scatterman by )-(u||!c|
- Where: JOLTED Arts Space, 342 High Street, Northcote
- When: 9–12, 14, 16–18 April
- Tickets: here
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Le Scatterman is hard to categorise, which is probably the point. Part stand-up, part solo concert, part performance art, it follows a sound artist and self-described crap Dad through the wreckage of modern life, the impossible pursuit of being the perfect husband, parent, artist and human being all at once. )-(u||!c|< moves between prepared piano, monologue and general chaos, with the kind of show that makes you laugh and then makes you wonder why you’re laughing. A Melbourne International Comedy Festival entry unlike most others on the program.
Mike Parr + )-(u||!c|< and Machines + Steven Hagiliassis + Guests
- Where: Northcote Social Club
- When: 29 April, 8pm
- Tickets: TBA
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Mike Parr has been one of Australia’s most significant performance artists since the 1970s, and rare live appearances don’t get taken lightly. For this new work, Parr draws on decades of his own documentation; images, sounds, and records of a career built on endurance, provocation and a deeply political use of his own body, to create a multiscreen immersion that functions as both retrospective and new work simultaneously. )-(u||!c|< performs alongside self-built sound machines that operate autonomously or are performed live in the room. NDIS artist Steven Hagiliassis, a long-term member of The Amplified Elephants who has toured internationally and performed at the Sydney Opera House, brings voice and electronics to a night that is genuinely historic in the context of Australian performance art.
Full program
Kicking things off in March, The Amplified Elephants perform at the Absorbed Festival on 7 March at Miscellanea CBD alongside Maria Moles on avant garde drum kit.
The following day, 8 March, The Amplified Elephants headline at Cross Street Music Hall for Brunswick Music Festival, performing Mysterioso Blue Adagio.
Jumping to 13 March, The Substation in Newport hosts a stacked international bill featuring Japanese violin and electronics artist Sayaka Botanic and noise duo HUH alongside )-(u||!c|< and the BOLT Ensemble in what shapes up as one of the more adventurous nights on Melbourne’s music calendar this year.
JOLTED Arts Space hosts a string of events through March and April, including spoken word night Voiceworks presenting Quits (20 March), and avant garde ensembles I Hold the Lion’s Paw and )-(u||!c|< and the BOLT Ensemble (28 March).
April brings )-(u||!c|< ‘s solo show Le Scatterman to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival; part concert, part stand-up, part performance art — running 9–12 and 14, 16–18 April at JOLTED Arts Space.
Also in April, )-(u||!c|< opens the exhibition Slow Gun on 26 April, a Da Vinci-inspired full-venue takeover running through to 30 May.
The month closes with a rare appearance from Mike Parr on 29 April at Northcote Social Club. One of Australia’s most significant performance artists, Parr presents a new multiscreen work drawing on decades of documentation, joined by )-(u||!c|< performing with self-built sound machines and NDIS artist Steven Hagiliassis on voice and electronics.
May rounds out the JOLT season with more to chew on: Naarm Underground (2 May), led by Motswana poet and rapper Tumi the Be; tabla virtuoso Bobby Singh and guests (23 May); a major Northcote Social Club bill featuring I Hold the Lion’s Paw, The Amplified Elephants and )-(u||!c|< and the BOLT Ensemble (27 May); and the season closer, the acousmatic opera Ambuscade (29–31 May), a ghost opera for multichannel speakers performed by the BOLT Ensemble.
For more information, head here.
