Mistletone

Mistletone proudly presents THE BATS, returning to Australia for RISING Melbourne + headline east coast shows.

THE BATS TOUR DATES:

SATURDAY JUNE 6: RISING Melbourne: Day Tripper @ Max Watts. Tickets on sale here.
SUNDAY JUNE 7: SOUTH COAST @ Coledale RSL with Loaded & True. Doors open 5pm. Tickets on sale here.
MONDAY JUNE 8: SYDNEY @ Factory Theatre (venue upgrade) with Daily Toll + Love Banana + Mistletone DJs. Doors open 4pm. Tickets on sale here.
TUESDAY JUNE 9: CANBERRA @ Polish Club with Tee Vee Repairmann + dogworld. Tickets on sale here.
THURSDAY JUNE 11: MELBOURNE @ Northcote Social Club with Cool Sounds. Tickets on sale here. 
FRIDAY JUNE 12: CASTLEMAINE @ Theatre Royal with Good Moon. Tickets on sale here.

Fresh from a triumphant, room-rammed set at The Other’s Way festival, Aotearoa indie legends The Bats are finally heading across the pond to deliver the live accompaniment to their much-loved 2025 album, Corner Coming Up, alongside treasured picks from their four-decades-deep knockout catalogue.

Corner Coming Up, the band’s eleventh album, was recorded with Tex Houston at Chicks Studio in Port Chalmers and charted at #1 on the IMNZ chart & #2 on the Aotearoa Music Charts. The album shows The Bats at their shimmering, melodic best; full of bright guitar lines, warm harmonies, and the band’s unmistakable Bats-ey “psych pop” mystique.

A beloved part of the Flying Nun story, the band have maintained the same lineup since they played their first gig on New Year’s Eve 1982 in Dunedin.

ABOUT THE BATS:
Formed in Christchurch in 1982, The Bats have quietly (and loudly) endured as one of New Zealand’s most loved pop bands. An integral cog in the Flying Nun scene alongside friends/contemporaries The Clean and The Chills, The Bats quickly developed a sound all of their own: chiming guitars, melodic bass lines, and songs that unassume while are instantly memorable.

With the longest unchanged band line-up in New Zealand history ( Robert Scott, Kaye Woodward, Paul Kean, and Malcolm Grant), their chemistry is unmistakable. Albums like Daddy’s Highway, Fear of God, Silver-beet, Free All The Monsters and so many more, The Bats have cemented their legendary status at home and abroad, earning them a devoted, generation-spanning following.

“The weight of their catalog has grown to the point where they come across like wise tribal elders” – ALL MUSIC

“Sublimely crafted deadpan pop... They’re basically the AC/DC of melancholy Kiwi indie pop” – UNCUT ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆