Redd Kross + The Hard-Ons 2026 Australian Tour

Two titans of power-pop and punk rock reunite this March. LA cult legends REDD KROSS, celebrating 45 years of dayglo hooks, sly wit and sky-high choruses, join forces once again with Aussie icons THE HARD-ONS, fronted by the incomparable Tim Rogers, for a long-awaited tour across Australia.

With new music in tow and a shared history of high-volume brilliance, the two pioneer bands are set to light up stages from Queensland to Victoria. Expect high-voltage singalongs, fuzz-drenched anthems, and a masterclass in melodic brilliance from two of rock’s most enduring and prolific forces.

REDD KROSS & THE HARD-ONS (with Tim Rogers)
AUSTRALIAN TOUR – MARCH 2026

Wed March 4 – Sol Bar, Maroochydore
https://tickets.solbar.com.au/outlet/event/8dbc25eb-22a2-40fc-857c-0291221621cc

Thur March 5 – Mo’s Desert Clubhouse, Gold Coast
https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/8ea40a33-a1ec-4940-9435-4df17aebf4da

Fri March 6 – Crowbar, Brisbane
https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/af28b3e1-7ffe-4057-8c63-e8f307efef86

Sat March 7 – Paddo RSL, Sydney
https://paddorsl.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/55898177-7481-4c88-8ac7-90aaeb33251a

Sun March 8 – Hamilton Station Hotel, Newcastle
https://thehamiltonstationhotel.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/372950a5-c769-4bb4-b472-0faa13773e1d

Tues March 10 – The Baso, Canberra
https://thebaso.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/c52a7ba3-a8f0-4de5-9fec-80352cafe35f

Thur March 12 – Barwon Club, Geelong
https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/23f5c425-50ea-4be8-8822-1d9cd1c16866

Fri March 13 – Theatre Royal, Castlemaine
https://theatreroyalcastlemaine.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/d31c05dd-5d42-4127-96c4-fb840fc125af

Sat March 14 – The Tote, Melbourne
https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/bd6a2e60-ad7c-4c9a-be28-fcbdf54bd25d

Tickets on sale now!

REDD KROSS & THE HARD-ONS. From LA and Sydney respectively. Separated by an ocean, but with ties that go back to when they were label mates on the US Big Time label in 1987 and maybe even further. Beyond that the connections are plentiful; both started playing out on their respective punk scenes when they were very young – Redd Kross as pre-teens and mid-teens in ’79-80, TheHard-Ons as mid-to-late teenagers in ’82-83 – and both ruffled plenty of feathers when they did. Both bands transgressed the accepted boundaries of punk, and both pushed audience excitement buttons with high energy, great tunes, an outrageous visual element and a willingness to not only include ’60s pop influences into their punk sounds, but also flashy and trashy ’70s hard rock.

Indeed, two bands were arguably the first two to understand the musical thread that joined Kiss and the Ramones, and in doing so they together helped make the world a brighter place.

Current Hard-Ons singer Tim Rogers goes back decades with Redd Kross too – a young You Am I were on the bill when Redd Kross toured Australia with the Hoodoo Gurusback in 1994.

REDD KROSS & THE HARD-ONS have also recently both celebrated anniversaries and received the kind of kudos that only occasionally comes with their levels of dedication and perseverance. Redd Kross last year marked their 45th anniversary with their most acclaimed album to date (a self-titled double LP on In The Red Records), as well as a revelatory movie documentary and book. TheHard-Ons celebrated their 40 years with a film of their own – a sequel to that is doing the rounds now – and continued their run of Top 40 records (which began in 2021 with their first album with Tim Rogers and their first for Cheersquad Records & Tapes, the #4 album I’m Sorry Sir, That Riff’s Been Taken) with last year’s I Like You a Lot Getting Older.

With a shared love of high-energy, catchy and FUN punky rock’n’roll, Redd Kross and The Hard-Ons have always been a match made in heaven, and that match will set East Coast Australian stages alight in 2026.

REDD KROSS BIO

Redd Kross was formed in Los Angeles in 1979 by brothers Jeff & Steven McDonald(then aged 15 and 11 – yes 11! – respectively!) and played their first show opening for Black Flag. They were the first punk band to acknowledge the influence of not only Kissbut the Partridge Family. They have since gone on to be a touchstone for an outrageous array of artists including Sonic Youth, The Bangles, Nirvana, The Melvins, Teenage Fanclub, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden as well as Australians including The Hoodoo Gurus, Hard-Ons, and You Am I.

The group, which has been occasional visitors to Australia since 1992 (Steven has also played here as a member of both Off! and The Melvins) and who last toured here in a double bill with The Melvins in 2017, last year celebrated their 45th birthday. It was a big year for them, with a new album – the most acclaimed of their long existence- as well as the acclaimed feature-length documentary Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story and the international publication of a memoir, Now You’re One Of Us: The Incredible Story Of Redd Kross.

REDD KROSS ONLINE:
Website | Instagram | Twitter/x | Facebook

HARD-ONS BIO

It’s been a long and punk-rocky road for our heroes, who formed the band while still in high school in the multicultural South-West Sydney suburb Punchbowl. Reflecting that multiculturalism, the core band (despite members come and gone) comprised three kids of East Asian, South Asian and Eastern European parentage – not your typical punk rockers of that or any other era. Weened on high energy rock’n’roll (Kiss!) and then the early punk and post-punk eras (with a focus on local Australian sounds, in particular the ’76/’77 punk of The Saints, Radio Birdman, Victims, Psycho-Surgeons and News), the new group appeared on a Sydney scene that took itself fairly seriously. With one foot in the Ramones/Radio Birdman-influenced garage-punk scene and the other in the spikey-haired punk-inspired scene of the early ‘80s, TheHard-Ons found a common denominator of noise and energy and appealed to a young crowd who was open to anything. With their youthful and unforgiving band name, transgressive and hilarious graphics and diverse ethnicity, they also found plenty of resistance.

Following the release of their first EP in 1985, The Hard-Ons quickly began to build a large following. Not content to repeat themselves, new elements entered their sound, including thrash metal and psychedelia, which were previously unheard in Australian punk. Their unruly and un-stylised look, which soon came to involve shorts, thongs and bare torsos, became something of the look de rigueur in punk circles as the decade wore on. The Hard-Ons had become trendsetters and were welcomed with open arms in international punk circles.

In their original incarnation, The Hard-Ons shared bills with the likes of the Ramones and Nirvana and appeared on numerous Big Days Out. They scored a never-bettered 17 consecutive number 1’s on the Australian independent charts. Despite a break-up, the formation of another band (Ray & Blackie’s other ongoing band Nunchukka Superfly – that band’s original line-up recently launched the long-lost album Nunchukka Superfly ’95 in August!) and, in Blackie’s case, a solo career, the Hard-Ons regrouped in the new millenium and found a whole new audience – kids who knew of their influence on subsequent groups like the Meanies and Frenzal Rhomb. New recordings ensued, and in 2018, by which time fans of another new generation of bands, including Clowns and Private Function were onboard, they undertook their 19th European tour, when they played the massive metal festival Hellfest, alongside Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Joan Jett. In 2021, the core pair of Ray and Blackie and “new” drummer Murray found themselves a new front person in the form of longtime fanboy, Tim Rogers of You Am I, and the proud parents of their first Top 5 album I’m Sorry Sir, That Riff’s Been Taken.

Over the years, The Hard-Ons have won the vocal support of artists like Dave Grohl, AC/DC’s Malcolm Young and Jello Biafra amongst countless others. They’ve influenced not only subsequent generations of punk bands but a wide-ranging groundswell of Australian alternative artists – from You Am I to Spiderbait to Silverchair to Regurgitator to Magic Dirt to the Dirty Three to The Chats – each of whom have been inspired by The Hard-Ons’ energy, free spirit and uncompromising dedication.

This announcementcomes at a busy time for The Hard-Ons.

The new documentary about the band, Harder & Harder, is in cinemas now, and The Most Australian Band Ever!, which Harder & Harder is a sequel to, is soon to be released on Blu-ray and in a range of Blu-ray box sets (one of which includes a vinyl pressing of the film soundtrack which has actual Hard-Ons blood mixed into the vinyl!)

Details about both films and the Blu-ray and boxset releases are available from Living End Films here – Living Eyes | Films

The soundtrack album for The Most Australian Band Ever! is also set for a December 5standalone release on a range of limited coloured vinyl, cassette & CD editions and digitally via Cheersquad and is on pre-sale now here –
The Most Australian Band Ever! – The Secret Origin of the Hard-Ons | Hard-Ons | Cheersquad Records & Tapes

In the meantime, a new 42-song digital collection, There Was A Time: Singles/EPs 1984-1999, was released through all digital providers earlier this month. Of course, the band has been touring too; their last show of the year is December 12 at the Altar Bar in Hobart.