No Green Day or The Killers tours for NZ – but why?

Two more major acts are skipping New Zealand. Do we smell bad?

The trend started, as many trends tend to do, with Taylor Swift.

For her two-year global Eras jaunt, officially the highest-grossing tour ever, the pop juggernaut famously chose to bypass Aotearoa in favour of playing multiple stadium shows in Sydney and Melbourne.

Fans here faced an agonising decision: find the cash for flights and accommodation then jump in brutal Ticketmaster queues hoping for a lucky break, or give up, miss out and attempt to shake it off.

Ever since, it’s kept happening, making that decision one that New Zealand music fans face with increasing regularity.

In April, Billie Eilish did exactly the same thing for her Hit Me Hard or Soft world tour, skipping Aotearoa in favour of a run of Australian shows in February. She’s played here a bunch of times, progressing from The Tuning Fork to Laneway to Spark Arena, and was last here in 2022.

This time? It’s not happening.

That same month, Olivia Rodrigo followed suit for her Guts world tour, announcing a string of October shows in Australia, but none here. That’s despite unverified reports she had a Spark Arena show fully locked in. (To this day, a mate of mine swears he has a friend who had an actual ticket for this rumoured show in their hands.)

In August, it was The Weeknd’s turn. He failed to live up to promises to reschedule dual Eden Park shows that were postponed, then cancelled, instead announcing four Australian stadium shows in October. “The After Hours ‘Til Dawn tour will not be making its way to New Zealand … in 2024 and there will be no further cities added,” a spokesperson for Live Nation dutifully said at the time.

Now, it’s happening all over again.

Earlier this week, The Killers announced a run of six Australian shows in November and December where they’ll play their albums Hot Fuss and Rebel Diamonds in full.

No New Zealand shows were announced, despite Brandon Flowers and co last playing in Auckland and Christchurch in 2022, a well-reviewed series of shows that were so successful the Las Vegas act put on a last-minute Auckland Town Hall show.

And, just yesterday, Green Day followed suit, confirming plans to play stadium shows in Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast in March next year.

Green Day were last here in 2017. This time, they’re not coming either.

At this point, artists choosing to tour Australia while skipping Aotearoa is seeming less like an anomaly and more like a very troubling and rapidly growing trend with each passing concert announcement.

In short, it sucks.

So I have some questions.

What’s wrong with us?

Are we that bad?

What did we do?

Do we smell?

I put these questions – OK, not the smelly one, but the others – to Frontier Touring, the promoters for The Killers’ Australian shows. I didn’t get a reply by deadline.

I did the same thing with Live Nation, the outfit behind Green Day’s Australian tour. (*They reached out right on deadline; their comments are at the bottom of this post.)

So, I guess I’ll try and fill in some of the gaps.

Yes, more acts are following in Swift’s steps and booking bigger and more lucrative stadium shows. It means less travel for artists and crew and cheaper shipping costs for equipment, the most expensive parts of touring these days.

At the same time, the restraints of Eden Park’s strict limit of six shows a year is really starting to show. CEO Nick Sautner has admitted these restrictions mean “artists are bypassing New Zealand and fans are missing out.” Yes, they’re attempting to increase it to 12, but that’s not approved yet, and it could be a while before it is.

Recently, further worries have emerged. While demand for Pearl Jam’s first Go Media Stadium show on November 8 was high, their second show suggests demand for some stadium-sized shows in Aotearoa may have peaked.

Jump on Ticketmaster and you’ll see there are many tickets available in every part of the stadium for the grunge act’s second show on November 10.

Unsold tickets (in blue) at Pearl Jam’s second NZ show.

The same thing appears to be happening for Travis Scott.

Currently in the middle of the highest-grossing rap tour of 2024, it was believed there would be huge demand for the Houston rapper’s first show here in October.

Again, plenty of tickets remain for his Eden Park show, and resale sites have been flooded by those trying to offload tickets at cost – or cheaper – prices.

Unsold tickets (in blue) at Travis Scott’s Eden Park show.

This is just a guess, but right now, The Killers and Green Day both fall in a bit of a weird space. They’re too big for Spark Arena, but perhaps not quite big enough to fill a New Zealand stadium – or at least not close enough for a promoter to give it a go.

Again, I’m spitballing, but maybe that decision was weighed that up against how Travis Scott and Pearl Jam tickets are selling and decided it just wasn’t worth the risk.

Obviously, this sucks for fans. I’m one: I would have loved to have seen The Killers play Hot Fuss in full. Likewise, Dookie hits me right in the nostalgic sweet spot. Seeing ‘Basket Case’ and ‘Jesus of Suburbia’ in the same night? That’s a great night!

Would I travel to Australia to see it go down? Sadly, my budget can’t run to that. What else can we do?

Wake me up when September ends, I guess.

* Live Nation responds: “Unfortunately due to a tight touring schedule it hasn’t been possible for the band to make it to NZ this time. Green Day are squeezing in their three Australian dates between their Japanese tour and an appearance at Lollapalooza India on March 8 & 9. The band will be performing in Nagoya on February 23, Osaka on February 21, and Yokohama on February 25, 2025.We tried but wasn't meant to be with that schedule.”

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Everything you need to know.

• One major star we are getting here is Dua Lipa, who has announced plans to return to her favoured Aotearoa venue, Spark Arena. Live Nation has confirmed she’ll play there on April 2 as part of her Radical Optimism Tour. RNZ reports tickets go on sale on September 20, with a pre-sale available through her website.

• In other tour news: Golden Lights will feature Becky Hill and Luude and is taking place at Trusts Arena on January 10; Synthony No. 6 is taking place in Auckland Domain on March 29 and will include Example, Ladi6, Kora and Th’Dudes; Also in Auckland Domain, Gardens Festival will feature Wilkinson and Skream; Meatstock has confirmed Shapeshifter, Ladyhawke and Kora as the headliners for its February event; Salmonella Dub has announced a heap of dates across the rest of 2024; Liam Finn is joining the Pearl Jam and Pixies stadium shows; and an Oasis festival has been announced in Takaka for September 27-29, but sadly it has nothing to do with the reunited UK rock act.

• Chappell Roan is continuing to lambast a section of her fanbase for extreme behaviour that’s forced her to employ a bodyguard. “I don’t want to be agoraphobic,” she tells Rolling Stone. That’s [how] most of my peers [feel]. Every fucking artist is on this page. Everyone is uncomfortable with fans. Some people just have more patience. I fucking don’t.” Snapping at photographers at the MTV VMAs shows she’s real struggling with this fame thing. Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for her New Zealand tour details to drop. Is it Laneway?

• RNZ has a lovely tribute to Doug Hood, the local music legend who bought the Big Day Out to Aotearoa in 1994 and was behind many big-name tours, including New Order and Iggy Pop, after his death at the age of 70. Audioculture calls him a “cultural giant”.

• A quick update on the Prince documentary I’ve been obsessing over ever since The New York Times ($$) reported it’s unlikely anyone will ever get to see the nine-hour Netflix movie. Prince’s estate now says it may get released, but it sounds like they want changes. “We are working to resolve matters concerning the documentary so that his story may be told in a way that is factually correct and does not mischaracterise or sensationalise his life,” reps told THR.

• Finally, here’s something to really set your Friday off right, the fuzzed-out new Fazerdaze single ‘Cherry Pie’. I’m so happy that Amelia Murray is back, she’s happy and she’s knocking out shimmery 80s-laced zingers like she was born to do it. Great video too! It’s the second song from Soft Power, her second album due out on November 15. I’m going to shut up now so you can listen…

And one more thing.