The Strokes will return to Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney in February 2027, with their Centennial Park performance launching a new concert series featuring Beck, Courtney Barnett and Promiseland.
by Paul Cashmere
The Strokes will return to Australia for four headline shows in February 2027, including the first Sydney Summertime concert at Centennial Park, where they will be joined by Beck, Courtney Barnett and Promiseland. The dates mark the band’s first Australian headline shows since 2022 and follow the release of their seventh studio album, Reality Awaits, earlier this year.
The Australian run begins at Brisbane Entertainment Centre on February 13 before The Strokes play two nights at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena on February 16 and 17. The tour concludes in Sydney on February 20 with the inaugural Sydney Summertime event.
Courtney Barnett and Promiseland will support The Strokes in Brisbane and Melbourne, while the Sydney bill expands to include Beck. It gives the Sydney concert a different format from the arena shows, positioning the event as the opening instalment of a new series of standalone outdoor concerts at Centennial Park.
For The Strokes, the Australian dates continue a touring cycle that began around Reality Awaits, their first studio album since 2020’s The New Abnormal. The new record was produced by Rick Rubin and recorded in Costa Rica before being completed in other locations.
Reality Awaits includes the singles “Going Shopping” and “Falling Out of Love”. The album is the band’s seventh studio release, following The New Abnormal, which won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album.
The current touring schedule has taken The Strokes through major festivals and headline performances internationally. In 2026 they have played Coachella, Bonnaroo, Outside Lands and Summer Sonic in Japan as part of the broader Reality Awaits touring cycle.
The Australian announcement also places the band in a familiar touring environment. Their relationship with Australia dates back to the release of Is This It in 2001, when the New York band quickly established a local following during the early years of their career. They returned repeatedly over the following years, including festival appearances and headline dates.
Their most recent Australian headline run was in 2022. The band also headlined Harvest Rock in Adelaide in 2025, giving them another Australian appearance before the newly announced 2027 shows.
The Strokes formed in New York in 1998 with Julian Casablancas, Nick Valensi, Albert Hammond Jr., Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti. That lineup remains intact, although Steve Schiltz has been performing live guitar duties in 2026 while Valensi is absent from the touring lineup.
The five-piece emerged at the beginning of the 2000s alongside the New York garage rock revival. Is This It became the defining early release of that period for the band, followed by Room on Fire, First Impressions of Earth, Angles, Comedown Machine and The New Abnormal.
The return to Australia therefore comes at a point when the catalogue stretches across more than two decades, while the current shows are built around a new record and a substantially different live production cycle.
For Sydney, the February 20 concert has another significance. The Strokes are the first headliner announced for Sydney Summertime, a new limited-season series intended to bring international and Australian acts to Centennial Park. The organisers say the concerts will combine live music with food and beverage offerings from Sydney restaurants, bars, food trucks and cellar doors.
Beck’s inclusion gives the Sydney date an additional connection to the Australian alternative music audience, while Barnett brings her new album Creature of Habit to the bill. Promiseland, the project of Johann Rashid, is signed to Julian Casablancas’ Cult Records, linking the support act directly to The Strokes’ own label network.
The Strokes Reality Awaits Australia 2027
Saturday 13 February, Brisbane, Brisbane Entertainment Centre
With Courtney Barnett and Promiseland
Tuesday 16 February, Melbourne, Rod Laver Arena
With Courtney Barnett and Promiseland
Wednesday 17 February, Melbourne, Rod Laver Arena
With Courtney Barnett and Promiseland
Saturday 20 February, Sydney, Centennial Park, Sydney Summertime
With Beck, Courtney Barnett and Promiseland
Tickets go on sale Tuesday 29 September at Tickets go on sale Tuesday 29 September at 1pm local time. local time.
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