Seattle grunge pioneers Mudhoney will return to Australia and New Zealand in October, bringing one of the founding bands of the grunge movement back to intimate venues across both countries.
by Paul Cashmere
Mudhoney, one of the architects of Seattle’s grunge movement, will tour Australia and New Zealand this October for their first run of dates across both countries in more than a decade. The Seattle quartet will play club shows around Australia before headlining Brisbane community radio station 4ZZZ FM’s Zed 51 Festival and then crossing the Tasman for five New Zealand dates.
The return of Mudhoney carries weight beyond nostalgia. While Nirvana and Pearl Jam became the commercial faces of Seattle’s early 1990s explosion, Mudhoney’s role in creating the sound and attitude of grunge has long been acknowledged by their peers. Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder once described them as the defining band of the era.
“When it comes to grunge or even just Seattle, I think there was one band that made the definitive music of the time,” Vedder said. “It wasn’t us or Nirvana, but Mudhoney.
Nirvana delivered it to the world, but Mudhoney were the band of that time and sound.”
Formed on 1 January 1988 following the demise of Green River, Mudhoney quickly became the flagship act for Seattle independent label Sub Pop. Their debut single, Touch Me I’m Sick, and the landmark Superfuzz Bigmuff EP established a template that would become synonymous with grunge. Distorted guitars, garage punk energy and Mark Arm’s irreverent vocal delivery helped define a movement that eventually turned Seattle into the epicentre of alternative rock.
Despite never achieving the commercial heights of some contemporaries, Mudhoney have maintained an active recording and touring career for almost four decades. They have released eleven studio albums and more than 25 official releases while retaining their original creative identity.
The current line-up features founding members Mark Arm on vocals and rhythm guitar, Steve Turner on lead guitar and Dan Peters on drums, alongside Australian-born bassist Guy Maddison, who joined the band in 2001. Maddison previously played with Sydney underground act Lubricated Goat and had worked with Arm in side project Bloodloss before joining Mudhoney full-time.
The band’s catalogue charts the evolution of alternative rock from its underground beginnings through to the present day. Following their self-titled debut album in 1989 and Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge in 1991, Mudhoney signed with Reprise Records and released albums including Piece Of Cake, My Brother The Cow and Tomorrow Hit Today.
Their influence continued well beyond the initial grunge boom. Kurt Cobain famously listed Superfuzz Bigmuff among his favourite albums, while Mudhoney’s blend of garage rock, punk and heavy distortion became a reference point for generations of alternative musicians.
In recent years, the group has remained prolific. They returned to Sub Pop in 2002 and have subsequently released Since We’ve Become Translucent, Under A Billion Suns, The Lucky Ones, Vanishing Point, Digital Garbage and most recently Plastic Eternity in 2023.
The upcoming tour will also feature Californian trio Primitive Ring as special guests on most Australian dates. The band includes musicians associated with Ty Segall’s touring band, Iggy Pop’s live line-up, Fuzz, GØGGS and Mikal Cronin’s projects, further strengthening the garage rock pedigree of the tour package.
For Australian audiences, the shows offer an opportunity to see one of alternative rock’s most influential and enduring acts in intimate settings. While grunge became a global commercial phenomenon in the early 1990s, Mudhoney’s continued existence and creative output have reinforced their status as one of the movement’s foundational bands rather than a relic of a particular moment in music history.
The October tour arrives with Mudhoney still actively recording and performing, nearly four decades after their first rehearsal on New Year’s Day in 1988. Their latest album, Plastic Eternity, demonstrated that the band remains committed to the noisy, uncompromising aesthetic that first established its reputation in Seattle’s underground scene.
Dates:
16 October, Melbourne, The Thornbury Theatre
17 October, Torquay, Torquay Hotel
18 October, Castlemaine, Theatre Royal
20 October, Ballarat, Volta
21 October, Manly, Felons Barrel Room
22 October, Sydney, Factory Theatre
23 October, Newcastle, King Street
24 October, Brisbane, Zed 51 Festival
25 October, Byron Bay, The Northern
28 October, Christchurch, Blue Smoke
29 October, Wellington, Meow
30 October, Tauranga, Totara St
31 October, Raglan, Harbour Hotel
1 November, Auckland, Double Whammy
Tickets go on sale Tuesday, 30 June at 9.00am local time via pressplaypresents.com.
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