The Wallflowers will make their Australian debut in December, performing Bringing Down the Horse in full alongside Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ Long After Dark.
by Paul Cashmere
The Wallflowers will make their first ever Australian concert appearances in December, with Jakob Dylan leading the band through five shows that will feature two complete albums performed in sequence. The Australian tour will celebrate 30 years of Bringing Down the Horse, the Wallflowers’ breakthrough 1996 album, while also presenting Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ Long After Dark in full, reflecting the influence Petty had on Dylan and the band.
The tour begins at Melbourne’s Palais Theatre on December 4 before moving to Anita’s Theatre in Thirroul and Liberty Hall in Sydney. The Australian dates follow the Wallflowers’ 2026 anniversary tour, on which the band has been performing Bringing Down the Horse from beginning to end, followed by Long After Dark.
The decision to pair the two albums gives the Australian shows a defined historical focus. Bringing Down the Horse established The Wallflowers as a major American rock act in the mid-1990s, while Long After Dark represents a key influence on the musical lineage from which Dylan’s band developed. The two records also bookend different stages of the same roots-oriented American rock tradition.
Released on May 21, 1996, Bringing Down the Horse was produced by T Bone Burnett and became The Wallflowers’ highest-selling album. It reached number four on the Billboard 200 and was eventually certified quadruple platinum. The album produced four singles, including One Headlight, 6th Avenue Heartache, The Difference and Three Marlenas. One Headlight subsequently won two Grammy Awards in 1998, including Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group.
The album emerged after a difficult period for the band. Following their 1992 self-titled debut on Virgin Records, The Wallflowers parted company with the label and returned to the Los Angeles club circuit while seeking another recording deal. They signed with Interscope in 1994 and eventually began work on Bringing Down the Horse with Burnett.
Dylan wrote the album’s songs across several years, including 6th Avenue Heartache, which predated the debut album, and a series of songs completed during the recording sessions. The production combined acoustic and roots instruments including banjo, dobro and pedal steel with a contemporary studio approach. Musicians involved in the sessions included Mike Campbell of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, who contributed slide guitar to 6th Avenue Heartache.
The album was dedicated to pedal steel player Leo LeBlanc, who died in 1995 after contributing to the record. His playing appears on several tracks, including Invisible City, God Don’t Make Lonely Girls and I Wish I Felt Nothing.
Long After Dark, released by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers in 1982, provides the second half of the Australian concerts. The album was the first Heartbreakers record to feature bassist Howie Epstein, whose playing and backing vocals became an important part of the band’s sound. It produced You Got Lucky, Change of Heart and Straight Into Darkness.
The Wallflowers’ decision to perform the record in its entirety has particular significance given Dylan’s long association with Petty. Dylan later inducted Petty into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and has continued to acknowledge The Heartbreakers as a major influence on his songwriting and musical direction. The Australian concerts therefore present both an anniversary performance and a direct connection between two generations of American rock songwriting.
The Wallflowers’ current tour format has already established the structure that Australian audiences will experience, with Bringing Down the Horse performed in its original running order before the complete Long After Dark set. The August 21 setlist supplied for the current tour also shows the band extending the programme with Wallflowers material and classic Petty songs during the encore.
For Australian audiences, the December shows will mark the first opportunity to see The Wallflowers perform locally, while the two-album format places their most commercially significant record alongside an album that helped shape the musical world surrounding it.
Setlist
The Wallflowers, August 21
Bringing Down The Horse
One Headlight
6th Avenue Heartache
Bleeders
Three Marlenas
The Difference
Invisible City
Laughing Out Loud
Josephine
God Don’t Make Lonely Girls
Angel on My Bike
I Wish I Felt Nothing
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Long After Dark
A One Story Town
You Got Lucky
Deliver Me
Change of Heart
Finding Out
We Stand a Chance
Straight Into Darkness
The Same Old You
Between Two Worlds
Encore
Love Is a Country (from The Wallflowers, Glad All Over, 2012)
Refugee (from Tom Petty, Damn The Torpedoes, 1979)
The Waiting (from Tom Petty, Hard Promises, 1981)
Tour Dates
December 4, Melbourne, Palais Theatre
December 5, Thirroul, Anita’s Theatre
December 6, Sydney, Liberty Hall
Ticket Details
https://www.lovepolice.com.au/tours2026/thewallflowers
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