Bleak Squad Announce New Run Of Shows For Feb/March 2026
It seems like Melbourne super-natural-group Bleak Squad are here to stay. The new Melbourne four-piece comprised of true Australian art-rock royalty: Adalita (Magic Dirt), Mick Harvey (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, The Birthday Party), Mick Turner (Dirty Three, Mess Esque) and Marty Brown (Art of Fighting) – are today announcing a run of shows in February and March 2026. All shows are on sale as of 10:00AM local time today (other than Canberra, which is on sale Dec 1.)
Adding to their already announced festival appearances at Perth International Festival, Golden Plains and Riverboats, will be their first headline shows in Brisbane, Sydneyand Canberra, as well as regional centres the Blue Mountains, Ballarat, Castlemaine, Eumundi and Murwillumbah.
Says Brown: “We looked at our calendars for next year and there were only a few weeks we were all in the country and available, so we’ve jam-packed as many shows into them as we could because god knows when the next opportunity to play live together will happen again”
Their debut album Strange Love has been a roaring, out-of-left-field success in 2025. Topping the AIR Chart, making a top 40 ARIA Chart debut, RRR and 3PBS Albums of the Week, and being shortlisted for The Australian Music Prize (to be announced on Thursday). Plus their first live shows that have left audiences mesmerised, including two shows at the Melbourne Recital Centre and a show in Sydney’s City Recital Hall with Ed Kuepper and Jim White.
As the Golden Plains blurb so rightly sums up:
“Ads and Harvey on vox, Turner on guitar and Brown behind the tubs. Hooboy, is this gonna be speeeeecial.
Squad goals.”
“Time will tell whether or not Bleak Squad is left to stand as a one-off project by a group who all have their own stuff going on, or something more lasting. What I’m more confident in predicting is that they should not be missed live: four Australian music greats with charisma to burn, uncanny chemistry, and a quality set of songs tailor-made for those long, dark nights of the soul.” – The Guardian
“Occasionally the musical universe offers unexpected gifts that we might never have thought to ask for and had no right to expect. Strange Love, the debut album by new Melbourne supergroup Bleak Squad, is one such gift. The names speak for themselves: Adalita (Magic Dirt), Mick Harvey (the Bad Seeds, the Birthday Party), Mick Turner (Dirty Three) and Marty Brown (Art of Fighting, Clare Bowditch), who brought the band together.” – The Guardian
Bleak Squad‘s album Strange Love is available now from:
Poison City https://poisoncityestore.com/
Bandcamp https://bleaksquad.bandcamp.com/
and Rough Trade (UK-EU) https://www.roughtrade.com/product/strange-love
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2026
Saturday 7th February Blue Mountains Theatre, Springwood
Sunday 8th February Perth Festival
Thursday 12th February Her Majesty’s Theatre, Ballarat
Friday 13th February Theatre Royal, Castlemaine
Saturday 14th February Riverboats Festival
Thursday 19th February Princess Theatre, Brisbane
Friday 20th February Imperial Hotel, Eumundi
Saturday 21st February The Regent Cinema, Murwillumbah
Wednesday 4th March Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse
Thursday 5th March The Factory Theatre, Sydney
Sunday 8th March Golden Plains Festival, Meredith
All shows on sale as of 10:00AM local time today (other than Canberra which is on sale Dec 1)
All tickets at www.feelpresents.com
Bleak Squad is the most well-known Melbourne band no one’s heard of.
Bleak Squad are a new Melbourne four-piece comprised of Australian art-rock royalty – co-authors of some of the most critically-acclaimed antipodean music of the last 40 years. Featuring Mick Turner (Dirty Three, Mess Esque) Mick Harvey (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, The Birthday Party), Adalita (Magic Dirt) and Marty Brown (Art of Fighting), “supergroup” is an embarrassing word. “Supernatural” might be more apt.
“I think the name Bleak Squad speaks to both this loose collection of misfits,” says Adalita of the concoction. “And the noirish mood of our music.”
Bleak Squads’s debut LP Strange Love is the moving sum of these parts, one that sees all four members juggle multiple instruments, songwriting, their own idiosyncrasies and – in the case of Adalita and Harvey – lead vocal duties. The nine songs percolate on brooding guitars, slippery basslines, organ drones, Brown’s lyrical drumming, and the unmistakable, illogical fizz of Turner’s guitar squawks. Over it, Adalita and Harvey swap and share tales of love dampened, hope on hold and threaded tendrils of acceptance.
As with all great works, Bleak Squad’s story starts by the pool.
“I was sitting around Fitzroy pool one summer bemoaning I wasn’t playing drums enough,” says Marty Brown. “So I thought I might start a new project and just called everyone then and there. I can’t remember why I thought it would work. Maybe I recognised we all had a similar way of making music – uncomplicated and instantaneous.”
Brown’s intuition is sharp. The drummer in melancholy mainstays Art of Fighting, as well as his partner Claire Bowditch’s band, Brown runs Standalone Studios, where he’s engineered and produced records with both those acts, as well as Sodastream, Darren Middleton and many more.
“I knew everyone had a completely unique musical personality,” says Brown of his contacts list. “But I wasn’t expecting how well those personalities would complement each other.”
Activated by Brown’s phone call, the four members brought in song ideas to a jam session at Melbourne’s Head Gap studios. With engineer Rohan Sforcina on the record button, the band – effectively – simply began.
“The first day was effortless,” says Brown. “We played the songs one time to teach others the bits, then we’d record the second take. A lot of Strange Love is that second take. Even though most of the tracks were jams, it sounds like we were reacting and playing to ‘the song’.”
Harvey agrees. “Marty concocted something good. He guessed at a good chemistry. But everyone put in lots of ideas and committed to the project. Playing music with other people is an exciting thing when it clicks.”
The nine songs on Strange Love reflect this alchemy – a regal compilation of bruised tunes that swoon and sizzle, while betraying the historic confidence of its members. Opener ‘Lost My Head’, the loping title track and ‘Everything Must Change’ build from sparse rock chugs to a swampy swagger, while the gorgeous ‘World Go to Hell’ and lonesome ‘Blue Signs’ skirt celestial depression. By the time closer ‘Melanie’ collapses in squalls of distortion, something is excised. It’s less a statement from veteran players, than a conjuring of something kinetic and conversational.
“Everything seemed to flow really easily, with everyone just getting a vibe and stepping in or out with the feel,” says Adalita. “We all add our own strengths to everything. And we take turns in the spotlight.”
What happens next? Live shows. And pinching themselves.
“I just really love the album we’ve made,” says Adalita. “This is the first time I’ve been in a band outside of Magic Dirt and my solo thing. So playing with different musicians I’ve always looked up to and being so inspired by being in an actual new band, is really exciting. They’re just fucking amazing. I really am pinching myself. It’s unreal. I really can’t wait to play live.”
Brown agrees. “I can’t wait to get the band on stage. The album has such an energy from feeling our way through the songs, I think it’ll make for a great show.”
“I’d have to say I feel the same way,” says Harvey.
And what does Turner make of all this?
“!!!”
Bleak Squad’s Strange Love album is out now on Poison City
