Sparta have announced four Australian headline shows for April 2027, with presales opening this week.
The El Paso band will open at Melbourne’s 170 Russell on 2 April, then play Sydney’s Factory Theatre and Brisbane’s Triffid on consecutive nights. The final date is at Perth’s Rosemount Hotel on 8 April, completing a four-show run across the east and west coasts.
Presale begins at noon local time on Wednesday 21 October, ahead of the general sale at noon local time on Friday 23 October. Metropolis Touring has the booking links for each city, with tickets advertised at $79.90.
The announcement names ‘Cut Your Ribbon’, ‘Air’, ‘Breaking The Broken’ and ‘While Oceana Sleeps’ among the songs planned for the shows. Newer tracks ‘Crater’ and ‘Everything You Say’ are also listed, bringing material from this year’s Cut A Silhouette into a set drawn from across Sparta’s catalogue.
Frontman Jim Ward formed Sparta after At The Drive-In split in 2001, joining fellow former members Paul Hinojos and Tony Hajjar. Their debut, Wiretap Scars, arrived in 2002, followed by Porcelain in 2004 and Threes in 2006. The current band features Ward with bassist Matt Miller and drummer Neil Hennessy.
Cut A Silhouette, Sparta’s sixth studio album, was released on 29 May. J. Robbins produced, engineered and recorded it in seven days at Magpie Cage Recording Studio, following a writing process that took place across hotel rooms, rehearsal spaces and soundchecks over a year.
My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank Iero co-wrote ‘Crater’ and ‘Mouthbreather’, although he does not perform on either recording. Other contributors include Kemble Walters on ‘See You Soon’ and Chicano Batman guitarist Carlos Arévalo on ‘Midnights’. The official ‘Crater’ video is below.
Ward had already hinted at an Australian return when he spoke to BLUNT in May. Asked whether there were plans to bring the album here, he replied: “You fucking know it.” The new announcement puts dates and venues to that promise.
In that interview, Ward also described revisiting records he loved as a teenager and listening back through his own releases while making the album.
Sparta Australian Tour 2027
- 2 April: 170 Russell, Melbourne
- 3 April: Factory Theatre, Sydney
- 4 April: The Triffid, Brisbane
- 8 April: Rosemount Hotel, Perth
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