The War On Drugs Returning To New Zealand with Spoon

Last in Aotearoa five years ago playing the closing set for Laneway 2018, Philadelphia rock collective The War On Drugs are finally making it back our way for headline dates at Auckland's Spark Arena and Wellington's Anderson Park this December. Celebrating the recent release of their 2021 studio album I Don’t Live Here Anymore (relaunched late last year in a deluxe edition), The War On Drugs will be joined for both local dates by Austin icons Spoon, for what may well be the veteran indie-rock group's first ever New Zealand performances — touring their acclaimed new album Lucifer On the Sofa and follow-up collection of Adrian Sherwood reconstructions Lucifer On The Moon — plus Sydney songwriter Indigo Sparke (Sacred Bones). Co-founded in 2005 by Adam Granduciel and Kurt Vile (who amicably left after the group's first album to pursue a solo career), The War On Drugs notably won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album for their 2017 record A Deeper Understanding (their fourth studio long player) — don't miss their triumphant return this summer...

The War On Drugs
with special guests Spoon
plus Indigo Sparke

Friday 1st December - Anderson Park, Wellington
Saturday 2nd December - Spark Arena, Auckland

Tickets on sale now via livenation.co.nz

Hit play on the soaring title track to The War On Drugs' 2021 album I Don't Live Here Anymore...

Experience live footage of The War On Drugs performing 'Harmonia's Dream' from I Don't Live Here Anymore at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Los Angeles...

Check out Spoon's video for 'Wild' from their 2022 album Lucifer On The Sofa...

Press release:

Live Nation is thrilled to announce the return of The War On Drugs to New Zealand for the first time since 2018. With special guests Spoon, plus Indigo Sparke, the band will tour the North Island in December 2023 in support of I Don’t Live Here Anymore, praised by GQ as “the band’s clearest, most vibrant, and upbeat.”

Presented in partnership with Radio Hauraki and 95bFM, tickets for all shows go on sale at 1pm NZT from livenation.co.nz with the Live Nation members presale beginning at 12pm, Thursday May 25 until 12pm, Friday.

Throughout the tour, The War On Drugs will play two of New Zealand’s finest venues, including Wellington’s Anderson Park, and Auckland’s Spark Arena.

Led by Adam Granduciel, the GRAMMY-Award winning band has steadily emerged as one of this century’s great rock and roll synthesists, removing the gaps between the underground and the mainstream, between the obtuse and the anthemic, making records that wrestle a fractured past into a unified and engrossing present. The New Yorker called them “the best American ‘rock’ band of this decade” in support of 2017’s A Deeper Understanding while Stereogum hailed The War On Drugs as “one of the greatest American bands of their generation” following the release of I Don’t Live Here Anymore. It landed on numerous 2021 best albums of the year lists and garnered a second GRAMMY Award nomination (Best Rock Song) and BRIT Award nomination.

Throughout their career, The War On Drugs has steadily evolved into one of rock’s most compelling live acts. “It’s hard to imagine a musical experience that’s more enveloping and uplifting” (Consequence).

Joining The War On Drugs for the tour will be one of rock's most acclaimed acts, Spoon. Austin’s most esteemed rock ambassadors have released ten albums to date, including a string of five straight top 10 records: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (2007), Transference (2010), They Want My Soul (2014), Hot Thoughts (2017), and Lucifer on the Sofa (2022). Hailed by TIME as “one of the greatest American rock bands”, Spoon topped Metacritic’s chart as the single most critically acclaimed band of the aughts.

Last here in 2017, Spoon will tour both countries for the first time since the release of their Grammy nominated tenth album ‘Lucifer On The Sofa’. More than two decades into their career, Spoon returned with this loud, low-down, melodious rock record which The Guardian called ‘Timeless Perfection’ and Rolling Stone said, ‘Might Be Spoon’s Best Record Ever’.

Opening for all shows will be Australian singer songwriter Indigo Sparke.