The Whitlams are swapping symphony halls for sticky carpet, hauling Return to Rock Island into the Corner Hotel this October.
Return to Rock Island sends Tim Freedman and co back to the rooms that built The Whitlams, returning to the pubs where two-, three- and four-night residencies forged their live reputation across the decades.
It follows the band’s Orchestral ’26 tour, which paired them with eight symphony orchestras in concert halls for some 30,000 people. This time the scale shrinks and the volume climbs, with the set list leaning into the louder end of a seven album catalogue, built for a crowd standing up close with nowhere to sit.
The Whitlams
- Hotel Brunswick, Brunswick Heads – 2 October
- Hoey Moey, Coffs Harbour – 3 October
- Corner Hotel, Richmond – 9 October
- Corner Hotel, Richmond – 10 October
- Metro Theatre, Sydney – 16 October
- Metro Theatre, Sydney – 17 October
- Wombarra Bowlo, Wombarra – 18 October
- The Triffid, Brisbane – 23 October
- The Triffid, Brisbane – 24 October
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
Joining for the full run is William Crighton, touring his fourth studio album Colonial Drift. A bold voice in Australian folk rock and a pioneer of bush-psych, Crighton builds songs around land, spirit and struggle.
Freedman is backed by Terepai Richmond on drums and Jak Housden on guitar, with Ian Peres back on bass and keys. The run opens where two 1994 Sunday residencies once played out, at Hotel Brunswick just north of Byron Bay and the Hoey Moey in Coffs Harbour, before multiple nights at Brisbane’s Triffid and the Corner Hotel, then a return to Sydney’s Metro Theatre, where the band filmed a live DVD in 2004.
The Melbourne shows land at the Corner Hotel in Richmond on 9 and 10 October, both strictly 18 plus and general admission standing. Tickets sit at $85.
For more information, head here.
