Empire Of The Sun will return to Australia and New Zealand for six performances in February and March 2027, extending the Ask That God era with a new live production.
by Paul Cashmere
Empire Of The Sun will return to Australia and New Zealand in February and March 2027 for the Ask That God: Afterlife Tour, with six performances scheduled across Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. The tour follows the Australian duo’s 2024 return to the road behind their fourth studio album, Ask That God, and will be their largest tour of Australia and New Zealand to date.
The tour begins at Auckland’s Spark Arena on February 19 before moving to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Tickets go on sale to the public at 2pm local time on Friday, September 18, with Frontier Members receiving access to a presale from 1pm local time on Wednesday, September 16.
Luke Steele described the next stage of the Ask That God live cycle as a period of uncertainty and experimentation.
“Ask That God: Afterlife feels like a tour of unknowns and possibilities, new visions, new plateaus, fragile breakthroughs,” Steele said. “I think things are going to happen on this tour that have never happened before. We can’t wait to take this music and this tour to new frontiers. Let’s break barriers together.”
The Afterlife production is being positioned as the concluding live chapter of the Ask That God project. According to the tour announcement, the production will expand the visual world established around the 2024 album, with the performance built around the project’s recurring themes of imagination, transformation and connection.
The timing marks another phase in the return of Empire Of The Sun following an eight-year gap between studio albums. Ask That God was released on July 26, 2024 and was preceded by the singles “Changes”, “Music On The Radio” and “Cherry Blossom”. The album reached number 10 on the ARIA Albums Chart.
The 2024 campaign also brought Empire Of The Sun back to the international touring circuit. Frontier Touring says the tour cycle has generated more than 400,000 ticket sales worldwide since it began.
Empire Of The Sun was formed by Luke Steele, formerly of The Sleepy Jackson, and Nick Littlemore, the Pnau member and producer. The pair had first met in Sydney in 2000 before their musical collaboration developed into Empire Of The Sun several years later.
Their debut album, Walking On A Dream, was released in Australia in October 2008. The record established the project’s combination of electronic pop, songwriting and elaborate visual presentation, while its title track and “We Are The People” became its defining early songs.
Walking On A Dream eventually became a major international catalogue title. The album reached number six in Australia and has been certified triple Platinum by ARIA according to the supplied material. “Walking On A Dream” later found a new audience in the United States through a Honda advertising campaign, helping the song reach number three on Billboard’s Alternative chart in 2016.
Empire Of The Sun followed with Ice On The Dune in 2013 and Two Vines in 2016. Songs including “Alive”, “DNA”, “High And Low” and “Way To Go” extended the group’s international audience, while performances at major festivals including Coachella, Glastonbury, Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits established the visual production as a central part of their live identity.
The eight-year gap before Ask That God created a significant break in the duo’s recorded output. During that period, Steele released solo material while Littlemore continued his work with Pnau and other projects. The two eventually returned to Empire Of The Sun, with Ask That God providing the first new album since Two Vines.
The group’s commercial reach remains substantial. The supplied figures credit Empire Of The Sun with more than five million albums sold, six billion streams, eight ARIA Awards and two APRA Awards. Walking On A Dream has also achieved Platinum or Gold certification in the United Kingdom and United States.
The 2027 tour therefore represents both a continuation and conclusion of the Ask That God live cycle. Rather than introducing another album at this stage, the Afterlife performances will take the existing project’s music and visual language into a new production across six Australian and New Zealand venues.
Tour Dates
Friday 19 February, Auckland, Spark Arena
Sunday 21 February, Brisbane, Riverstage
Thursday 25 February, Sydney, Afterpay Arena
Saturday 27 February, Melbourne, Sidney Myer Music Bowl
Tuesday 2 March, Adelaide, Adelaide Entertainment Centre
Saturday 6 March, Perth, RAC Arena
Ticket Details
Frontier Member presale: Wednesday 16 September, 1pm local time, for 48 hours or until the presale allocation is exhausted.
General public tickets: Friday 18 September, 2pm local time.
All shows are licensed all ages.
Tickets and tour information: frontiertouring.com/empireofthesun
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