FOLLOWING hard on the heels of shows in Canberra and Sydney, Bleak Squad are headed to Meredith to play Golden Plains Festival on 8 March.<\/p>\n
Bleak Squad are a fairly new Melbourne four-piece comprised of Australian art-rock royalty and co-authors of some of the most critically acclaimed antipodean music of the last 40 years.<\/p>\n
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,” the band’s members insist.<\/p>\n
“We looked at our calendars 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,” said Brown ahead of Golden Plains.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The nine songs percolate on brooding guitars, slippery basslines, organ drones, Brown’s lyrical drumming, and the unmistakable fizz of Turner’s guitar squawks.<\/p>\n
Over it, Adalita and Harvey swap and share tales of love dampened, hope on hold and threaded tendrils of acceptance.<\/p>\n
Their first live shows, including two shows at the Melbourne Recital Centre and a show in Sydney’s City Recital Hall with Ed Kuepper and Jim White, left audiences duly impressed and Meredith will wrap up a whirlwind national tour.<\/p>\n
“The name Bleak Squad speaks to both this loose collection of misfits and the noirish mood of our music,” Adalita said.<\/p>\n
“I just really love the album we’ve made. Playing with different musicians I’ve always looked up to and being so inspired by being in an actual new band, is really exciting. I really am pinching myself. It’s unreal. I really can’t wait to play live.”<\/p>\n
Golden Plains Festival happens at the Meredith Supernatural Ampitheatre over 7-9 March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FOLLOWING hard on the heels of shows in Canberra and Sydney, Bleak Squad are headed to Meredith to play Golden Plains Festival on 8 March. Bleak Squad are a fairly new Melbourne four-piece comprised of Australian art-rock royalty and co-authors of some of the most critically acclaimed antipodean music of the last 40 years. Featuring […]<\/p>\n