Toowoomba music: Australian stars Ben Lee, Pete Murray, Thirsty Merc, Whitlams, Grinspoon, James Reyne headline massive month of music
Some of Australia’s best touring acts and rising stars will be descending on Toowoomba over the next five weeks in a sonic feast. Our gig guide here.
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Could this be one of Toowoomba’s biggest months for music in years? It sure feels like that.
Some of Australia’s best touring acts and rising stars will be descending on the Garden City over the next five weeks to play our biggest festivals and venues.
Stars include headliners like Ben Lee, Grinspoon, James Reyne, Thirsty Merc, Kate Ceberano, Marcia Hines, Pete Murray and the Whitlams, all of which have toured internationally and rank among the nation’s most popular artists.
Also along for the ride are plenty of up-and-comers, including Merci Mercy, Press Club, Dameeeela, Andy Martin and Jeffe.
The sonic feast has excited venue owners, who believe Toowoomba is turning a corner after being often ignored by touring acts after Covid.
Powerhouse owner Jim Aspromourgos, who is hosting Grinspoon next month and recently saw Polaris and The Rubens play his venue, said regional centres were getting more attention from bookers.
“We’re finding there’s a mindset that the regional areas are starting to be addressed and some festivals have dropped off, so the secondary market is those regional centres like us,” he said.
“Our venues have sustained for quite a long time and one of the reasons is we were able to morph into a fairly flexible venue, where we can do different things and not just cultivate one aspect of live entertainment.
“There’s a place for all of us, for the larger and smaller venues.
“The variety of entertainment spaces, including our outdoor spaces, are an asset for our community.”
Bone Idol Bar owner Alister Ferguson, who has Ben Lee playing this week followed by The Whitlams on August 23, said smaller venues offered a more intimate experience for large acts.
“The thing about these older artists is they like smaller capacity venues and it can be a better way to make money,” he said.
“It can become more cost-effective to do smaller shows and it ends up with a more intimate experience.
“You’re seeing larger venues closing, which opens the opportunities for us and for Toowoomba.”
Here’s our gig guide for the month ahead in Toowoomba, in chronological order:
The Whitlams Black Stump Duo – August 23, Bone Idol Bar
Indie-rock legends The Whitlams have branched into country music, with Tim Freedman and Ollie Thorpe bringing their piano and pedal steel duo act to Bone Idol in support of new album Kookaburra.
The band gained enormous prominence in the 1990s with hit single No Aphrodisiac, and have been mainstays of the Australian music scene ever since.
The intimate show will also serve to present new material, as the pair play songs from the debut album of the Whitlams’ offshoot Black Stump.
The pair will be supported by Cairns musician Andy Martin.
Festival of Food and Wine – Queens Park, September 13-15
A main event at Toowoomba’s biggest tourism attraction of the year, 2024’s Festival of Food and Wine at the Carnival of Flowers has pulled out all the stops with entertainment.
The three-day festival will pull together some of Australia’s top artists, including some rising industry stars.
Mashd N Kutcher
Brisbane trio Mashd N Kutcher will be headlining Friday night’s entertainment, which features Toowoomba’s Kosta Theodosis on drums.
Starting in 2012 as an electronic dance project, the band now has played over 1500 live shows across the world and has earned a big online following with their content series Will It Mash?
Recently, they played at halftime for the 2023 A-League grand final, while also performing at Groovin The Moo in 2022 and at the Big Bash League this year.
In 2023 project founder Matt James established an ongoing fundraising component for the band, with all artist streaming royalties for the song It’s Alright going to Myeloma Australia in perpetuity.
Dameeeela
Raised in Ipswich and now based in Brisbane, Dameeeela is developing a reputation as a promising up-and-coming selector and DJ.
From hip hop to acid to the classics, the Yuggera woman draws listeners in with mixes bursting with electric passion and rife with experimentation.
She has warmed up stages for major artists like Skepta, Tyler, the Creator, Charli XCX, Anderson .Paak, Genesis Owusu, Wiki and Skin On Skin.
Merci, Mercy
After years honing her craft in and out of the studio, pop artist Merci Mercy is tackling Toowoomba as part of one of her biggest tours to date.
With 27 million streams online, the Sydney songwriter has built her career on mixing confronting and frank topics with catchy pop melodies, exploring vices like alcohol and smoking and her own mental health across various songs.
“I really liked Amy Winehouse’s authenticity, and how she would say she was addicted to toxicity — I like writing about real things,” she told News Corp.
“For Angel (her new single) I just felt so tired at the time because I am so tired all the time, so I wrote about that.
“Winnie Crush (her biggest single to date) came to me because I was drinking so much at the time.
“It just feels like words floating around me and sometimes I pick gems out of the air.”
Merci has had one of her busiest years for touring in 2024, with the Festival of Food and Wine sitting between gigs throughout NSW and Victoria.
“The musicians in the band I am working with are close friends to me, so it’s super fun — they’re my brothers’ friends from way back,” she said.
“I love performing live, it’s so much fun, I love being in the studio but being up on stage is what I love most.”
Merci’s tour is in support of her new single Angel, written with frequent collaborator Robby De Sa.
A groovy upbeat tune centred around shaking off bad vibes to have a good time, the single is already earning radio play on national broadcaster Triple J.
At a time when young people were struggling with rising living costs and increasing everyday pressures, Merci said she hoped the song would be a soundtrack to help people cut loose.
“I hope people have fun and don’t think too deeply on it — I just wanted to write something with bad b--ch energy,” she said.
“I hope that this is the soundtrack for (people struggling) — if I could ease the stress for someone dealing with rising rents, that would make me so happy.”
James Reyne
Former Australian Crawl frontman James Reyne is back in the Garden City for the first time in 12 months, headlining Saturday’s entertainment at the Festival of Food and Wine.
Reyne, who also developed a respected career as a solo artist, will be playing all his hits including seminal Australia track Boys Light Up.
In a 2021 interview with News Corp, the singer said he was constantly fascinated by how people would interpret the song differently.
“Whatever anyone’s interpretation is, there are lots of songs where people said they loved it because they thought it meant XYZ, and that wasn’t why I wrote it,” he said.
“Sometimes people’s interpretations are actually better than mine — music has that organic effect on people.”
Thirsty Merc
Hardworking and hard-touring rockers Thirsty Merc will be belting out of all of their classic hits at Queens Park on the second night of the festival.
The spot will be the first opportunity for fans to hear them before they kick off a 21-date tour across the entire country, dubbed Electric Summer.
The trio is known for popular tunes like Someday, Someday, In The Summertime and 20 Good Reasons.
Bullhorn
Brisbane brass band Bullhorn brings together an eclectic mix of hip hop, funk, soul, jazz, reggae that is sure to get the dancefloor moving early on Saturday at Queens Park.
The nine-piece band includes seven horns, a drummer and one energetic MC, which combines “virtuosic musicianship, crazy arrangements, catchy grooves and upbeat rhythms”.
Bullhorn has released two albums and have played festivals like Woodford Folk Festival, WOMADelaide, Splendour In The Grass Festival, Queenscliff Festival, Port Fairy Festival, Vivid Festival and The Falls Music and Arts Fest.
Pete Murray
Chinchilla-born Pete Murray remains one of Australia’s most celebrated songwriters, more than 20 years since he first picked up a guitar.
The Queenslander, best known for hits like So Beautiful, Opportunity, Better Days and Always A Winner, will headline Sunday’s entertainment at Queens Park.
Festival of Food and Wine is one just four dates for Murray in 2024, which includes slots in Sydney, Byron Bay and Langhorne Creek in South Australia.
Kate Ceberano
More than 40 years after stepping onto the scene, pop, jazz and soul singer Kate Ceberano is still Australian music royalty and has shown no signs of slowing down.
Known for chart-topper Bedroom Eyes, the Melbourne-born artist has 10 top-10 singles and was inducted into the Australian Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 2014.
Her Toowoomba appearance is part of a massive run of shows with Jon Stevens over October and November.
Yacht Rock Revival
Celebrating and paying tribute to the soft rock hits of the 1970s, Melbourne’s Yacht Rock Revival have described themselves sounding like “if the Doobie Brothers fronted by Michael McDonald doing What A Fool Believes”.
Artist the seven-piece band covers include Toto, Elton John, Steely Dan, Hall and Oates, 10CC and Christopher Cross.
John Williamson – Empire Theatre, September 20
Balladeer and songwriter John Williamson will be dropping into Toowoomba in what could be his final show in the Garden City as the music legend winds down his career.
Williamson, known for classic tunes like True Blue and Galleries of Pink Galahs, was due to perform in Toowoomba earlier this year but had to cancel after suffering an injury to his hand.
“Well, after 40 years of messing around with rocks at Willowshed, one finally got me on the left hand,” he said back in February.
“It ripped the skin badly and needed surgery (on Tuesday) to repair muscle and nerve damage and stitch it up again.”
The show has now sold out.
Grinspoon – Powerhouse, September 21
Iconic 90s rockers Grinspoon, known for classics like Hard Act To Follow and Just Ace, are back in Toowoomba as part of a massive 49-date national tour.
The run of shows is in support of the band’s first new album in 12 years, Whatever, Whatever.
They’ll be supported by Brisbane alt-rock band Press Club, who are playing Toowoomba for the first time since 2018.
Originally published as Toowoomba music: Australian stars Ben Lee, Pete Murray, Thirsty Merc, Whitlams, Grinspoon, James Reyne headline massive month of music
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