Overview
Can't stop, addicted to the shindig? Then you'll be excited about the latest huge music tour heading Down Under. Get ready to give it away, give it away, give it away now, too — your money, obviously, to see Red Hot Chili Peppers when they hit up Australia and New Zealand in early 2023.
The Los Angeles-based rockers have announced that they're bringing their new global stadium tour our way, making six stops across both countries. First up, Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith and John Frusciante will hit up Auckland's Mt Smart Stadium and Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium in January, plus Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium. Then, in February, they'll be singing songs to you beneath the marquee at Sydney's Accor Stadium, Melbourne's Marvel Stadium and Perth's Optus Stadium.
The band's dreams of Californication are zipping around the planet as part of a hefty tour that kicked off in June in Spain, and will also make its way to London, Paris, Dublin, LA, Chicago, New York and more alongside its Down Under stops. And yes, the Chili Peppers have a record to plug in the process, aka Unlimited Love — their 12th studio album, which dropped back in April.
Clara Balzary
Both Unlimited Love and the tour mark the return of guitarist Frusciante, who left the Chilis back in 2009, then rejoined the band in 2019. And, the tour will see the group head to this part of the world for the first time since 2019, too — and playing plenty of hits from their almost four-decade run so far, obviously.
There's a hefty number of songs to choose from. Since their self-titled first EP in 1984, the band has sold more than 80 million albums, won six Grammys and entered the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. They've also released tracks spanning 'Under the Bridge', 'Scar Tissue', 'Breaking the Girl', 'By the Way' and 'The Zephyr Song', as well as 'Otherside', 'Soul to Squeeze', 'Around the World', 'My Friends' and 'Suck My Kiss'.
Red Hot Chili Peppers will be joined Down Under by someone else who's sold just as many records: Post Malone. Yes, it's a two-for-the-price-of-one kind of tour — two massive music names, that is. Post Malone heads our way fresh from releasing his fourth studio album Twelve Carat Toothache in June.
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS 2023 DOWN UNDER TOUR DATES — WITH POST MALONE:
Saturday, January 21 — Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland
Thursday, January 26 — Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin
Sunday, January 29 — Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Thursday, February 2 — Accor Stadium, Sydney
Tuesday, February 7 — Marvel Stadium, Melbourne
Sunday, February 12 — Optus Stadium, Perth
Red Hot Chili Peppers and Post Malone are touring Australia and New Zealand in January and February 2023.
Tickets for Australian shows go on sale online on Monday, July 11 — at 12pm in Brisbane, 1pm in Melbourne and Perth, and 2pm in Sydney, with pre-sales via Telstra from Wednesday, July 6 and from Live Nation on Friday, July 8. For more information, head to the tour website.
Tickets for New Zealand shows go on sale online at 12pm on Monday, July 11, with pre-sales via Vodaphone from Wednesday, July 6 and from Live Nation on Friday, July 8. For more information, head to the tour website.
Images: Pavel Suslov / Clara Balzary.