BIGSOUND turns 25 next month and while Fortitude Valley will once again become a three night maze of bands, industry meetings and questionable decisions made while sprinting between venues, the artists arriving in Brisbane aren’t pretending everything underneath Australian live music is healthy.
From September 1st to 4th, BIGSOUND brings 100 showcasing artists into 15 Fortitude Valley venues. Ladyhawke, Ngaiire, Sam Fischer and Jem Cassar-Daley sit alongside an emerging crop spanning punk, hardcore, metal, indie, hip hop, electronic music and just about everything between.
For us, there was another reason to dig into this year’s line-up, Heavy music has a genuine presence in the BIGSOUND 100, including CATPISS, Indigo Blaze, Mertas, L.O.W and others operating around Australia’s punk, hardcore and alternative underground.
So we asked CATPISS, Indigo Blaze, Mertas, WIN BIG, TEENS and L.O.W what they’re actually looking forward to at BIGSOUND and, more importantly, what makes touring Australia so bloody difficult in 2026.
The answers kept circling back to the same thing… Money.
Apparently Everyone Wants To See L.O.W
If our completely unscientific sample is anything to go by, you’d better make room for L.O.W.
Newcastle’s CATPISS have been waiting to catch them properly.
‘L.O.W. I’ve heard great things about their shows and have been rinsing their music in the lead-up to BIGSOUND. I’ve seen them pop up on a few Newcastle bills but still haven’t managed to catch them live. I can only imagine the carnage when they rip into a breakdown. I’m keen to be smack bang in the middle of it at BIGSOUND.’
Perth’s Indigo Blaze are thinking similarly.
‘Our must see list is pretty lengthy but we’re very keen to see L.O.W – You can just feel the live chaotic energy coming from this crew. Pure NYC style hardcore at its finest, see you in the pit!’
They also nominate Ricky Neil Jr and Sweatbaby, while remote Northern Territory outfit Mertas have CATPISS, L.O.W, Indigo Blaze and Blinder on their list.
‘We are really keen to suss CATPISS we have pet cats and resonate with there name a lot. L.O.W, Indigo Blaze and Blinder sound mammoth really excited to check them out!’
WIN BIG, meanwhile, are pointing towards Special Features.
‘It’s got to be Special Features though, Awesome band. Sick to see them on the come-up.’
TEENS split their votes between CATPISS, The Browns, Public Figures and Special Features, which gets closer to the real appeal of BIGSOUND. You can arrive with a carefully engineered schedule and still end up discovering your favourite band of the week because you walked into the wrong room.
L.O.W understand that better than most.
‘One of the best things about something like BIGSOUND is getting thrown into rooms to watch artists you might never normally share a bill with.’
Their own list stretches from Wollongong acts Kidskin and Zach Stephenson through to Ladyhawke, Win Big, Mertas, Milly Strange, Local The Neighbour, Blinder, Gloam, DC Maxwell and Public Figures.
‘Good live music is good live music, regardless of genre.’
Hard to argue with that.
What Does BIGSOUND Actually Mean For A Heavy Band?
BIGSOUND has spent 25 years positioning itself as a bridge between artists and the machinery capable of taking them further. Labels, booking agents, managers, publishers, media and international delegates descend on Brisbane every September.
For smaller heavy bands, getting inside that room matters.
CATPISS want relationships that could eventually help them tour more efficiently, grow their audience and head overseas. Indigo Blaze want to put heavy music in front of listeners who don’t usually engage with it. Mertas, travelling from the NT, see simply reaching an audience in Brisbane as something significant.
Then there’s L.O.W, who aren’t interested in sanding down hardcore’s rough edges for the industry.
‘We don’t want to water L.O.W down or make hardcore more palatable for an industry audience. We want to bring the same intensity we bring to every show and hopefully get a room full of people who may have never experienced it before involved in it with us.’
They want people to understand that hardcore isn’t something happening solely onstage. The crowd becomes part of it.
‘If someone walks in having never seen a hardcore band before and walks out sweaty, hoarse and thinking, “What the f**k was that?”, then we’ve probably done our job.’
That’s arguably what a showcase festival should be doing after 25 years. Not simply confirming what the industry already understands, but putting something unfamiliar directly in front of it.
Then Comes The Bill
Ask these bands about the biggest obstacle facing Australian touring artists and the romanticism disappears quickly.
CATPISS point towards fuel, accommodation, lost income from taking time away from work, merchandise commissions, operating costs and diminishing streaming returns.
‘For many emerging acts, the challenge isn’t just getting on the road, it’s finding a way to keep doing it sustainably.’
For Indigo Blaze, being based in Perth makes Australia’s already ridiculous geography even harder to negotiate.
‘Aside from just the pure costs to fly across the country, getting an opportunity as a WA act is very difficult.’
Tasmania creates the same problem for TEENS.
‘Australia is so damn big, travel is the budget killer. Plus everything is so expensive on top of that. Tours are increasingly hard without some type of funding. As a Tasmanian band we also have an extra leg of travel just to get out of the state which is a real barrier.’
Mertas see it from the other end of the map in the remote NT. Travel is expensive, venues are battling production costs and audiences themselves have less disposable income.
Their final economic indicator might be the most painfully Australian of the lot:
‘Beer prices aren’t what they used to be.’
‘It’s Always Money’
WIN BIG don’t bother dressing the problem up.
‘Cash! Always cash, it’s always money it’s always money it’s always money.’
But their answer also cuts through something easily lost whenever Australian touring gets reduced to spreadsheets and economic reports.
‘This shit does not pay for itself. Even when it does it doesn’t. It doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing, it is totally worth doing.’
That’s the contradiction holding a massive chunk of Australian independent music together. Musicians know the economics can be rotten and keep climbing into vans anyway.
L.O.W put some numbers around it.
For five members to fly to Perth, they estimate they could be staring at roughly $5,000 in return flights before playing a note. Then come accommodation, transport, equipment and the rest.
‘And it genuinely isn’t about making money for us. If making money was the objective, starting a hardcore band would be an absolutely fucking terrible business plan.’
The problem isn’t that bands suddenly expect to get rich. It’s whether they can lose little enough to continue.
‘There’s only so many times DIY artists can personally absorb thousands of dollars in losses before opportunities that should be exciting simply become impossible.’
That’s the uncomfortable backdrop to BIGSOUND’s 25th anniversary.
The appetite is there, the bands want to tour. They want to find audiences, meet other artists, build relationships and take Australian music overseas. Audiences still want rooms where they can discover something new.
The question is increasingly whether everyone involved can afford to keep getting into those rooms.
For three nights in September, at least, 100 artists will get that opportunity in Fortitude Valley.
And if these bands are right, you might want to find whichever room L.O.W are playing in.
Tuesday, September 1st – Friday, September 4th
Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
BIGSOUND celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2026, with the BIGSOUND 100 performing across 15 venues throughout Fortitude Valley. Festival and delegate passes are on sale now through BIGSOUND.
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