Melbourne’s Icecream Hands will close out 2026 with their annual Christmas show, following a year that has included a new EP and the chart success of their 2025 album, Giant Fox Pineapple Tree.
by Paul Cashmere
Icecream Hands will return to Melbourne’s Northcote Social Club on Saturday 19 December for their annual Christmas show, bringing together songs from across their catalogue with material from their recent Pineapple Pieces EP and 2025 album Giant Fox Pineapple Tree.
The Christmas performance has become a recurring fixture for the Melbourne power pop band, whose current lineup features Charles Jenkins, Derek Smiley, Douglas Lee Robertson and Marcus Goodwin.
For guitarist Marcus Goodwin, the Northcote Social Club date has developed into more than another show on the calendar.
“The yearly show at Northcote Social Club has become something of a tradition,” Goodwin says. “I think for most of us, it wouldn’t be a proper Christmas without a big night of Icecream Hands hits and a chance to catch up with our wonderful bunch of fans, friends and fellow music-lovers.”
This year’s concert follows the release of Pineapple Pieces in August. The EP reached number one on the AIR Independent Singles Chart, adding another chapter to a run that began with the band’s 2025 album Giant Fox Pineapple Tree.
The Christmas set is expected to draw on that recent material while returning to songs that have remained central to the Icecream Hands catalogue. Among the older titles listed for the show are “Dodgy” and “Nipple”, alongside songs from Pineapple Pieces and Giant Fox Pineapple Tree.
The combination reflects the band’s unusually long recording history. Icecream Hands formed in Melbourne in 1992, initially under the name Chuck Skatt and His Icecream Hands, before shortening the name. Charles Jenkins, who remains the band’s singer and guitarist, had previously been involved with The Mad Turks from Istanbul.
The original Icecream Hands lineup included Jenkins, Arch Larizza, Dom Larizza and Derek Smiley. Douglas Lee Robertson subsequently replaced Arch Larizza on bass, while Marcus Goodwin joined the band in 1997. That lineup change preceded the release of Memory Lane Traffic Jam, the album that expanded the band’s reach beyond Australia with a US release through Not Lame Recordings.
The band’s 1999 album Sweeter Than the Radio remains one of the key records in the catalogue. Produced by Icecream Hands and Wayne Connolly, it included “Nipple” and earned the band an ARIA nomination for Best Adult Contemporary Album in 2000. Two years later, “Rain, Hail, Shine” from Broken UFO was nominated for Best Independent Release at the ARIA Music Awards.
Icecream Hands subsequently went through periods of inactivity and reformation. The band reunited for The Good China in 2007, then returned in 2019 for a tour marking the 20th anniversary of Sweeter Than the Radio. In 2020 they released No Weapon But Love, their first album in 13 years. The COVID-19 lockdowns delayed its live launch until January 2021, when the band performed at Northcote Social Club.
That history gives the annual Christmas show a particular context. Northcote Social Club has already been part of the band’s more recent live story, and the December performance brings the current chapter back to the same Melbourne venue.
Giant Fox Pineapple Tree, released on 7 November 2025, became the band’s latest full-length record and reached number 38 on the Australian albums chart. Pineapple Pieces followed in August 2026, extending the current recording period with another collection of new songs.
For the Christmas show, Icecream Hands are promising a set built around their established melodic guitar-pop sound, with the newer material sitting alongside songs that date back several decades.
There is also a seasonal twist to the new EP. The band says chocolate-covered Pineapple Pieces will feature as part of the Christmas theme, turning the title of the latest release into part of the evening itself.
19 December 2026, Melbourne, Northcote Social Club
Tickets: Oztix and Northcote Social Club
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