After more than a decade away from full touring, The Drones will return in 2026 for a one-off Australian tour, with Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin stepping aside from Tropical F Storm to revisit the band’s influential catalogue.
by Paul Cashmere
Australian underground rock band The Drones will reunite for a one-off national tour in 2026, their first extended run of shows since entering hiatus nearly a decade ago. The tour will take place across August and September, with performances scheduled in the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria.
The announcement follows a brief return to the stage in June 2025 when the band performed two short fundraiser sets at Melbourne’s Croxton Bandroom. Those shows sold out within 20 minutes, a response that demonstrated the continued appetite for the group’s intense and uncompromising live performances.
The 2026 tour will see founding members Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin temporarily step away from their later project Tropical F Storm. Since forming that band in 2017, the pair have toured extensively internationally and released a series of critically regarded albums. The Drones reunion, however, brings the focus back to a catalogue that helped reshape Australian independent rock across two decades.
Formed in Perth in 1997 by Liddiard, The Drones initially developed their sound in Western Australia before relocating to Melbourne in the early 2000s. The band steadily built a reputation for unpredictable and emotionally charged live shows, driven by Liddiard’s dense songwriting and abrasive vocal delivery. Their music combined blues, noise rock and post-punk influences, often framed by lyrics that examined politics, social dysfunction and bleak humour.
The band’s breakthrough arrived with the 2005 album Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By, a record that won the inaugural Australian Music Prize. That award helped introduce the band to a broader audience and cemented their reputation as one of the most uncompromising acts in Australian rock. The album also delivered Shark Fin Blues, a track that has since become one of the defining songs of modern Australian independent music.
Subsequent releases expanded the band’s reach. Gala Mill followed in 2006 and was later ranked No. 21 in the book 100 Best Australian Albums. The band continued to refine their sound through albums including Havilah in 2008 and I See Seaweed in 2013.
The latter reached No. 18 on the ARIA Albums Chart and earned multiple award nominations. Their final studio album before hiatus, Feelin Kinda Free in 2016, became the group’s highest-charting release, peaking at No. 12.
Across that catalogue, songs including Jezabel, I See Seaweed, Taman Shud, To Think That I Once Loved You, How To See Through Fog, Boredom and River Of Tears established The Drones as a band unafraid of tackling uncomfortable themes while pushing the sonic limits of Australian rock.
The group also built a formidable reputation on stage, sharing bills internationally with artists including Neil Young and Patti Smith. Their reputation for relentless touring saw them perform across Europe, the United States and Australia throughout the 2000s. Even as recording activity slowed in the mid-2010s, the mythology around the band continued to grow among music fans and critics alike.
The current reunion lineup features Gareth Liddiard, Fiona Kitschin, Dan Luscombe, Christian Strybosch and Steve Hesketh. The tour will draw material from across all seven studio albums rather than focusing on a single era of the band’s output.
Joining The Drones on the road will be Sydney duo The Mess Hall, another act closely associated with Australia’s independent rock scene of the early 2000s. Guitarist Jed Kurzel and drummer Cec Condon released three albums during their original run, Notes From A Ceiling, Devils Elbow and For The Birds, and returned to live performance earlier in 2026.
For followers of Australia’s underground rock history, the reunion represents an opportunity to see one of the country’s most influential independent bands revisit the stage. The Drones formally entered hiatus after their final show supporting Feelin Kinda Free in December 2016. In the years that followed, Liddiard and Kitschin focused on Tropical F Storm, while other members pursued separate musical and production work.
The band’s legacy has continued to grow during that period. Shark Fin Blues has frequently appeared in lists of significant Australian songs, while I See Seaweed and Havilah remain reference points for artists exploring the outer edges of Australian rock songwriting.
Tickets for the 2026 tour go on sale at 10am AEST on Tuesday April 14. The Darwin Festival performance will go on sale separately in May.
The Drones 2026 Australian Tour
with guests The Mess Hall
Saturday, 8 Aug, Darwin, Darwin Festival
Friday, 14 Aug, Thornbury, Thornbury Theatre
Friday, 28 Aug, Brisbane, Crowbar
Saturday, 29 Aug, Marrickville, Factory Theatre
Friday, 4 Sept, Adelaide, The Gov
Saturday, 5 Sept, Perth, Rechabite
Friday, 11 Sept, Castlemaine, Theatre Royal
Saturday, 12 Sept, Archies Creek, Archie’s Creek Hotel
Tickets on sale 10am AEST Tuesday April 14.
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