Gillian Welch and David Rawlings head south in February 2027 for An Evening With Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, a six-show run split between Tasmania and New Zealand. It opens with two nights at the Odeon Theatre in Hobart on Sunday 14 and Monday 15 February, then crosses the Tasman for The Civic in Auckland on Wednesday 17 February, the BNZ Theatre in Hamilton on Thursday 18 February, the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington on Saturday 20 February and Christchurch Town Hall on Tuesday 23 February.
The shape of the tour is unusual for this site. Hobart is the only Australian city in the announced dates, and New Zealand gets four of the six shows, including three cities where the duo have no recorded concert in the setlist.fm archive. As of 9 October 2026 no Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide or Perth date had been announced.
It will be the first visit to this part of the world since early 2016, and the first since the pair won two Grammy Awards for Best Folk Album, for All the Good Times (Are Past & Gone) in 2021 and Woodland in 2025. Tickets have been on sale since Friday 4 September 2026.
Tasmania comes first. The Odeon Theatre on Liverpool Street in Hobart, a former silent picture house that opened in 1916, hosts both Australian shows: Sunday 14 February 2027, which is Valentine's Day, and Monday 15 February. These are the only Australian dates announced for the tour.
New Zealand follows straight away. The Civic in Auckland, the country's largest theatre, is on Wednesday 17 February, and the BNZ Theatre in Hamilton the next night, Thursday 18 February. After a day's break the duo play the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington on Saturday 20 February, and the tour ends at the Christchurch Town Hall on Tuesday 23 February 2027.
The billing matters. For most of their career the two have performed together under Welch's name alone, simply billed as "Gillian Welch", and they have also released records under Rawlings's name. This tour, like their two most recent albums, carries both names, which reflects how the partnership is now presented.
No support act had been announced as of 9 October 2026, and the title "An Evening With" suggests the duo will carry the night themselves. No mainland Australian date had been added to the tour as of the same date.
The Odeon Theatre at 167 Liverpool Street in Hobart opened in 1916 as the Strand Theatre, a silent picture house. It had a six-rank Wurlitzer organ, the only one of its kind in Tasmania, and seats about 1,690 people.
The Civic opened on 20 December 1929 on Queen Street, Auckland, and seats about 2,378, making it the largest theatre in New Zealand. A Category 1 historic place, it is the largest surviving atmospheric cinema in Australasia, with a starry-sky ceiling, and appeared in Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005).
The BNZ Theatre is part of the Claudelands events precinct in Hamilton, alongside Claudelands Arena (now Globox Arena), which opened in 2011 and holds up to 6,000 for concerts. The complex also includes a conference and exhibition centre.
The Michael Fowler Centre on Wakefield Street in Wellington was designed by Warren and Mahoney and opened in 1983. It seats about 2,209 for concerts, and its exterior lighting is used to mark national and international occasions.
Christchurch Town Hall, designed by Warren and Mahoney, opened on 30 September 1972 on the banks of the Avon River overlooking Victoria Square. Closed after the February 2011 earthquake, it reopened in 2019; its main auditorium seats about 2,250.
Sunday 14 February 2027 — Odeon Theatre, Hobart. Night 1 of 2 at this venue. The tour starts here.
Wednesday 17 February 2027 — The Civic, Auckland. Their most recent documented Auckland show was at Civic Theatre on 28 January 2016.
Thursday 18 February 2027 — BNZ Theatre, Hamilton.
Saturday 20 February 2027 — Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington.
Tuesday 23 February 2027 — Christchurch Town Hall, Christchurch. The run finishes here.
The setlist.fm archive files these concerts under Gillian Welch, the name the duo performed under for most of their career; Rawlings was the guitarist and harmony singer beside her on stage. The first Australian dates listed are from November 2004, the year after Soul Journey: The Tivoli in Brisbane on 1 November and the Great Northern Hotel in Byron Bay on 3 November, both without recorded set lists.
Melbourne got the most of that 2004 trip. Welch and Rawlings played three consecutive nights at the Prince Bandroom in St Kilda on 10, 11 and 12 November, and a fourth Melbourne show at the Forum Theatre on 16 November. The sets were long, 22 or 23 songs each, and they changed every night: the Prince Bandroom shows took in "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You", "Manic Depression", "Big Rock Candy Mountain" and "Albuquerque" alongside Welch's own songs.
The Forum show on 16 November 2004 ended with a nod to the host country: the duo played AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" before closing with "I Dream a Highway", the 15-minute song that ends Time (The Revelator).
The second tour came in early 2016, a theatre run that began in New Zealand at the Civic Theatre in Auckland on 28 January. In Australia the archive lists the Perth Concert Hall on 30 January, Her Majesty's Theatre in Adelaide on 3 February, two nights at the Palais Theatre in St Kilda on 5 and 6 February, two nights at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney on 8 and 9 February and The Tivoli in Brisbane on 11 February.
A final Melbourne date followed at Festival Hall on 20 February 2016. That set ran to 19 songs and finished with "Method Acting" into Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer", the Band's "The Weight", "I'll Fly Away" and "I Dream a Highway". In all, the archive holds 15 Australian and New Zealand concerts across the two tours.
Hobart does not appear in either tour, and neither do Hamilton, Wellington or Christchurch. The only city on the 2027 list that the duo have played before, according to the archive, is Auckland, where they last performed at the Civic on 28 January 2016, the same theatre they return to on 17 February 2027.
The table below lists 15 documented Australia/NZ concerts by Gillian Welch & David Rawlings between 2004 and 2016, with the most shows in Melbourne (7), Brisbane (2), Sydney (2), Adelaide (1), Perth (1), Auckland (1). It is not exhaustive: it only includes documented shows.
| Date | City | Venue | Tour / event |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 February 2016 | Melbourne | Festival Hall | |
| 11 February 2016 | Brisbane | The Tivoli | |
| 9 February 2016 | Sydney | Enmore Theatre | |
| 8 February 2016 | Sydney | Enmore Theatre | |
| 6 February 2016 | Melbourne | Palais Theatre | |
| 5 February 2016 | Melbourne | Palais Theatre | |
| 3 February 2016 | Adelaide | Her Majesty's Theatre | |
| 30 January 2016 | Perth | Perth Concert Hall | |
| 28 January 2016 | Auckland | Civic Theatre | |
| 16 November 2004 | Melbourne | Forum Theatre | |
| 12 November 2004 | Melbourne | Prince Bandroom | |
| 11 November 2004 | Melbourne | Prince Bandroom | |
| 10 November 2004 | Melbourne | Prince Bandroom | |
| 3 November 2004 | Byron Bay | Great Northern Hotel | |
| 1 November 2004 | Brisbane | The Tivoli |
Concert data: setlist.fm
Across the 11 most recent documented Australia/NZ concerts with a full song list (10 November 2004 to 20 February 2016), these are the songs that came up most often. Titles only — set lists change from night to night.
Gillian Welch was born in New York City on 2 October 1967 and grew up in Los Angeles, where her adoptive parents wrote music for The Carol Burnett Show. She discovered bluegrass through a Stanley Brothers record while studying at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and met David Rawlings at an audition for the only country band at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. After moving to Nashville in 1992, they found their voices blended while singing "Long Black Veil" and began performing as a duo.
Produced by T Bone Burnett, the debut Revival (1996) was nominated for a Grammy, as were Time (The Revelator) (2001) and The Harrow & the Harvest (2011). In between came Hell Among the Yearlings (1998) and the fuller-sounding Soul Journey (2003). Welch was associate producer of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, which won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2002, and sang "I'll Fly Away" with Alison Krauss on it.
Rawlings has led a parallel run of records with Welch as co-writer and harmony singer: A Friend of a Friend (2009) and Nashville Obsolete (2015) as Dave Rawlings Machine, and Poor David's Almanack (2017) under his own name. In 2018 the pair were nominated for an Academy Award for "When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings", written for the Coen brothers' The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and in 2015 they received the Americana Music Association's Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting.
All the Good Times (Are Past & Gone) (2020), recorded at home during lockdown, was the first album released in both their names and won the Grammy for Best Folk Album in 2021. Woodland, released on 23 August 2024, was their first album of new original songs in years and won the same award in 2025, making Welch and Rawlings the only duo to win it more than once.
| Album | Year | AUS chart peak |
|---|---|---|
| Revival | 1996 | — |
| Hell Among the Yearlings | 1998 | — |
| Time (The Revelator) | 2001 | — |
| Soul Journey | 2003 | AUS 69 |
| A Friend of a Friend (Dave Rawlings Machine) | 2009 | — |
| The Harrow & the Harvest | 2011 | AUS 11 |
| Nashville Obsolete (Dave Rawlings Machine) | 2015 | — |
| Poor David's Almanack (David Rawlings) | 2017 | — |
| All the Good Times (Are Past & Gone) | 2020 | — |
| Woodland | 2024 | — |
Tasmania has never featured in the duo's recorded touring history, and in 2027 it is the only Australian state on the itinerary. The Odeon Theatre hosts both shows, on Sunday 14 and Monday 15 February, giving Hobart two nights while the mainland capitals, as of 9 October 2026, have none.
The Odeon is one of Hobart's historic theatres. It opened in 1916 as the Strand, a silent picture house with a six-rank Wurlitzer organ, the only one of its kind in Tasmania, and seats about 1,690 people. It is a good fit for a duo whose concerts depend on two voices and two acoustic guitars being heard clearly.
Four of the six shows are in New Zealand, and they trace the country from north to south: Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch, in that order, between 17 and 23 February 2027. Until now the archive has only one New Zealand concert for the pair, at the Civic Theatre in Auckland on 28 January 2016.
The Civic, opened in 1929 with its famous starry-sky ceiling, holds about 2,378 people. Hamilton's BNZ Theatre is part of the city's Claudelands events precinct. Wellington's Michael Fowler Centre, designed by Warren and Mahoney and opened in 1983, seats about 2,209 for concerts, and the Christchurch Town Hall, by the same architects, reopened in 2019 after earthquake repairs.
Both the Michael Fowler Centre and the Christchurch Town Hall are purpose-built concert auditoriums, which suits a show with no drums and no band.
When Welch and Rawlings last played Australia and New Zealand, in 2016, their most recent album under Welch's name was The Harrow & the Harvest from 2011, and the sets were built around it and the classic albums: "Scarlet Town", "The Way It Will Be", "The Way It Goes", "Hard Times" and "Down Along the Dixie Line" sat alongside "Elvis Presley Blues" and "Look at Miss Ohio".
Since then they have released Boots No. 1: The Official Revival Bootleg (2016), Rawlings's Poor David's Almanack (2017), and two Grammy-winning albums in both their names. Woodland (2024) is the first album of new original material from them since 2011 and 2017, so the 2027 shows are the first chance for audiences here to hear those songs live.
Fans in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth have seen the duo before: the 2016 tour played every one of those cities, Melbourne three times. In 2027, as announced, none of them is on the list.
That may or may not change. As of 9 October 2026 the only Australian shows are the two in Hobart, and there is no reason to assume more. If you want to hear about any added date, the alert below is the simplest way to find out.
A Welch and Rawlings show is two people, two acoustic guitars, occasionally a banjo, and two voices. On the 2016 tour the sets ran to 19 to 24 songs, usually opening with "Scarlet Town" and including "Rock of Ages", "Red Clay Halo", "Revelator", "Six White Horses" and "Caleb Meyer". Rawlings's own songs, among them "Sweet Tooth" and "Ruby", appeared on some nights, and encores often included "I'll Fly Away", "Long Black Veil" or "Jackson".
Across the 2004 and 2016 visits, the most played songs in the archive are "Look at Miss Ohio", "Elvis Presley Blues", "Red Clay Halo", "Revelator" and "Caleb Meyer". The sets changed from night to night: the Adelaide show on 3 February 2016 even included "Happy Birthday to You".
No set list for the 2027 tour has been published. Expect a long evening, with no support act announced, and a quiet room: these are concerts where the audience listens closely.
Tickets for all six shows have been on sale since Friday 4 September 2026, and the tour is listed as on sale. No presale details were part of the information available for this page. Buy through the authorised ticketing outlet named by each venue or at the venue's own box office.
These are mostly seated theatres and concert halls, so seat location matters more than at a standing show. If a show sells out, use only the official resale facility attached to the original ticket; mobile tickets are often linked to the buyer's account and name. For New Zealand shows, make sure prices are shown in New Zealand dollars from an authorised seller.
There is no public presale code for this tour to buy or trade, and codes offered on social media are not genuine. To hear about any added date, including a possible mainland Australian show, sign up below for the alert.
When does the 2027 tour start?
With two nights at the Odeon Theatre in Hobart, on Sunday 14 and Monday 15 February 2027.
Are Gillian Welch and David Rawlings playing Sydney or Melbourne?
Not as of 9 October 2026. The only Australian dates announced are the two in Hobart.
Which New Zealand cities are included?
Auckland (The Civic, 17 February), Hamilton (BNZ Theatre, 18 February), Wellington (Michael Fowler Centre, 20 February) and Christchurch (Christchurch Town Hall, 23 February 2027).
What is the last show of the tour?
Christchurch Town Hall on Tuesday 23 February 2027.
When did they last play Australia?
In February 2016, ending at Festival Hall in Melbourne on 20 February.
Is David Rawlings on the tour?
Yes, the tour is billed as An Evening With Gillian Welch & David Rawlings. Rawlings has been Welch's partner on stage since the 1990s, even when their shows were billed under her name only.
Is there a support act?
None had been announced as of 9 October 2026.
When did tickets go on sale?
On Friday 4 September 2026.
Have they played Auckland before?
Yes, at the Civic Theatre on 28 January 2016, the same venue as their 17 February 2027 show.
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