Max McNown returns to Australia and New Zealand in February 2027 with the Slow Down, Down Under Tour, nine shows in eight cities. It starts at The Ice Cream Factory in Perth on Tuesday 2 February, then visits the Hindley Street Music Hall in Adelaide (4 February), The Fortitude Music Hall in Brisbane for two nights (6 and 7 February), the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney (10 February), Festival Hall in Melbourne (18 February) and the Fred Moule Pavilion in Cairns (20 February), before crossing to The Civic in Auckland (22 February) and Christchurch Town Hall (24 February 2027).
The singer-songwriter from Oregon is a recent arrival in country and folk. He released his first single in April 2023, signed with Fugitive Recordings and scored a slow-building hit with 'A Lot More Free', which reached No. 4 in New Zealand and went Platinum in Australia. 'Better Me for You (Brown Eyes)' later reached No. 26 on the US Billboard Hot 100. His third album, Leave On a Light, came out on 25 September 2026 and reached No. 49 in Australia.
His history in this part of the world is short but recent: a debut tour of Australia and New Zealand in May 2025 that added second shows in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Tickets for 2027 have been on sale since Tuesday 15 September 2026. This page covers the confirmed dates, the venues, the 2025 shows and how to buy safely.
The Slow Down, Down Under Tour is a much wider run than his first visit. In 2025 he played four Australian cities and Auckland; in 2027 he adds Adelaide, Cairns and Christchurch, and moves up from clubs and theatres such as the Tivoli and the Roundhouse to larger rooms such as the Hordern Pavilion and Festival Hall.
The tour opens in the west on Tuesday 2 February 2027 at The Ice Cream Factory in Northbridge, Perth, and moves to Adelaide on Thursday 4 February at the Hindley Street Music Hall. Brisbane has the only double booking, Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 February at The Fortitude Music Hall, a sign of the demand that led to a second Tivoli show in 2025. Sydney follows on Wednesday 10 February at the Hordern Pavilion.
There is then a gap of a week in the published schedule before Melbourne on Thursday 18 February at Festival Hall. The Australian leg ends far to the north on Saturday 20 February at the Fred Moule Pavilion at the Cairns Showgrounds, one of the rare regional Queensland stops on an international tour this summer.
New Zealand closes the tour with two shows: The Civic in Auckland on Monday 22 February and Christchurch Town Hall on Wednesday 24 February 2027. It is his first South Island concert. No support act has been announced as of 9 October 2026.
The Ice Cream Factory is an event space on Roe Street in Northbridge, Perth's inner-city entertainment district. Its indoor and outdoor areas are used for concerts and festival-style summer events.
The Hindley Street Music Hall is an 1,800-capacity concert venue on Hindley Street in Adelaide's city centre. It was developed with the team behind Brisbane's Fortitude Music Hall to fill the gap between the smaller Gov and the larger Thebarton Theatre.
The Fortitude Music Hall opened in July 2019 on the Brunswick Street Mall in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. It holds about 3,000 people standing and was built to fill the gap for a mid-sized concert hall in the city.
The Hordern Pavilion opened in 1924 in Moore Park, Sydney, and holds about 5,500 people. Over the years it has hosted concerts, dance parties and championship boxing, including fights featuring Jeff Fenech.
Festival Hall opened in 1913 on Dudley Street, West Melbourne, as a boxing venue known as 'the House of Stoush'. Rebuilt after a 1955 fire in time for the 1956 Olympics, it hosted the Beatles in 1964, holds about 5,400 people and has been operated by Live Nation since 2023.
The Fred Moule Pavilion is an exhibition building at the Cairns Showgrounds, a site of about 17 hectares a few minutes from central Cairns. It is used for the annual show, events and concerts, with room for up to about 2,000 seated.
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).
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.
Tuesday 2 February 2027 — The Ice Cream Factory, Perth. In Perth, the last documented Max McNown concert was at Metro City Concert Club (16 May 2025). The tour starts here.
Thursday 4 February 2027 — Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide.
Saturday 6 February 2027 — The Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane. Night 1 of 2 at this venue. In Brisbane, the last documented Max McNown concert was at The Tivoli (7 May 2025).
Wednesday 10 February 2027 — Hordern Pavilion, Sydney. In Sydney, the last documented Max McNown concert was at Roundhouse (12 May 2025).
Thursday 18 February 2027 — Festival Hall, Melbourne. In Melbourne, the last documented Max McNown concert was at Forum Theatre (14 May 2025).
Saturday 20 February 2027 — Fred Moule Pavilion, Cairns.
Monday 22 February 2027 — The Civic, Auckland. The artist's most recent documented Auckland show was at Powerstation on 4 May 2025.
Wednesday 24 February 2027 — Christchurch Town Hall, Christchurch. This venue closes the tour.
Max McNown's concert history in Australia and New Zealand covers a single tour, and it is a recent one. His first visit, the A Lot More Free Tour, was announced in January 2025 as his debut in the region, and it took place in May 2025, a few months after his album Night Diving.
The tour opened at the Powerstation in Auckland on Sunday 4 May 2025. The set there ran to 21 songs, from 'Hotel Bible' and 'Turned Into Missing You' through 'Night Diving' and 'Freezing in November', his first single, to 'Better Me for You (Brown Eyes)', 'St. Helens Alpenglow' and a closing 'A Lot More Free'.
In Australia he played The Tivoli in Brisbane on 6 and 7 May, the Roundhouse at UNSW in Sydney on 11 and 12 May and the Forum Theatre in Melbourne on 13 and 14 May 2025. The second Brisbane and Melbourne nights were added after the first shows sold quickly, and Sydney also ended up with two. The run finished at the Metro City Concert Club in Perth on 16 May 2025.
That makes eight documented shows, seven in Australia and one in New Zealand, all in rooms of club and theatre size. He has not played Adelaide, Cairns or Christchurch before, and his only New Zealand concert so far is the Powerstation night in Auckland.
The setlist archive also lists a show in late June 2025 under a 'Bloomsbury' location in Australia, with no songs recorded. We could not confirm that it took place in Australia, so it is not included in the table on this page.
The table below lists 8 documented Australia/NZ concerts by Max McNown between 2025 and 2025, with the most shows in Melbourne (2), Sydney (2), Brisbane (2), Perth (1), Auckland (1). It is not exhaustive: it only includes documented shows.
| Date | City | Venue | Tour / event |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 May 2025 | Perth | Metro City Concert Club | |
| 14 May 2025 | Melbourne | Forum Theatre | |
| 13 May 2025 | Melbourne | Forum Theatre | |
| 12 May 2025 | Sydney | Roundhouse | |
| 11 May 2025 | Sydney | Roundhouse | |
| 7 May 2025 | Brisbane | The Tivoli | |
| 6 May 2025 | Brisbane | The Tivoli | |
| 4 May 2025 | Auckland | Powerstation |
Concert data: setlist.fm
Across the 2 most recent documented Australia/NZ concerts with a full song list (4 May 2025 to 13 May 2025), these are the songs that came up most often. Titles only — set lists change from night to night.
Max Winter McNown was born on 20 July 2001 in West Linn, Oregon, and grew up in Bend. After high school and two years of college, he moved to Southern California in August 2022 and learned to play guitar. His family has a music connection: he is a nephew of Brandon Ebel, founder of Tooth & Nail Records, and of Cade McNown.
His debut single, 'Freezing in November', came out in April 2023. He signed with Fugitive Recordings and released the EP A Lot More Free in August 2023; its title song became his breakthrough, reaching No. 4 in New Zealand and No. 3 on Sweden's Heatseeker chart and going Platinum in several countries, Australia included.
His debut album, Wandering, followed in April 2024, then the EPs Willfully Blind and Covers later that year. Night Diving, released on 24 January 2025, reached No. 72 in Australia and No. 176 on the Billboard 200. 'Better Me for You (Brown Eyes)' became his biggest US hit, No. 26 on the Hot 100 and No. 7 on Hot Country Songs. He released the EP Both Sides of the Blade in November 2025.
Leave On a Light, his third studio album, was announced in July 2026 and released on 25 September 2026; it reached No. 49 in Australia, his highest placing there. In October 2025 he married Sallie Kate Goff, who has appeared in his videos for 'Strong as Iron' and 'Forever Ain't Long Enough'.
| Album | Year | AUS chart peak |
|---|---|---|
| Wandering | 2024 | — |
| Night Diving | 2025 | AUS 72 |
| Leave On a Light | 2026 | AUS 49 |
In May 2025 Brisbane was the first Australian city to need a second Max McNown show, at The Tivoli in Fortitude Valley. In 2027 it is again the only city with two nights, Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 February, this time at The Fortitude Music Hall, also in Fortitude Valley and with a standing capacity of about 3,000.
The Fortitude opened in July 2019 on the Brunswick Street Mall and filled a long gap for a mid-sized hall in Brisbane. A weekend pair of shows there is a strong statement for an artist whose first single came out less than four years earlier.
Most international tours of Australia stop in the four or five state capitals. The Slow Down, Down Under Tour adds Cairns, with a Saturday show on 20 February 2027 at the Fred Moule Pavilion, an exhibition building at the Cairns Showgrounds, a few minutes from the city centre. It is the last Australian date before the tour crosses to New Zealand.
For fans in Far North Queensland, Townsville and the Atherton Tablelands, it saves a flight to Brisbane. The Fortitude dates two weeks earlier remain the nearest alternative if Cairns sells out.
Adelaide gets its first Max McNown show on Thursday 4 February at the Hindley Street Music Hall, an 1,800-capacity room on the city's main nightlife strip, set up by the team behind Brisbane's Fortitude Music Hall to fill the gap between the smaller Gov and the larger Thebarton Theatre.
Sydney's show on Wednesday 10 February is at the Hordern Pavilion in Moore Park, which opened in 1924 and holds about 5,500. Melbourne's on Thursday 18 February is at Festival Hall in West Melbourne, the heritage-listed former boxing hall where the Beatles played in 1964. Both are a step up from the Roundhouse and the Forum, where he played two nights each in 2025.
New Zealand has been one of McNown's strongest markets: 'A Lot More Free' reached No. 4 there, and 'St. Helens Alpenglow', 'Same Questions' and 'Turned Into Missing You' have also charted. In 2027 he plays The Civic in Auckland on Monday 22 February, a 1929 atmospheric theatre on Queen Street that seats about 2,378 and is the largest theatre in the country.
The tour ends on Wednesday 24 February 2027 at Christchurch Town Hall, opened in 1972 and reopened in 2019 after repairs following the 2011 earthquake. Its main auditorium seats about 2,250. It will be his first concert in the South Island.
McNown's 2025 shows in the region ran to about 20 songs. In Auckland and Melbourne he opened with 'Hotel Bible', 'Turned Into Missing You' and 'Love I Got Left', played 'Night Diving', 'Freezing in November' and 'Fishing Line' mid-set, and closed with 'Better Me for You (Brown Eyes)', 'Love Me Back' and 'A Lot More Free'.
The sets mixed originals with covers: a Bob Marley medley built on 'Three Little Birds' in both cities, Noah Kahan's 'Stick Season' in Melbourne and Jason Isbell's 'Cover Me Up' in Auckland. The 2027 shows follow the release of Leave On a Light, so expect a share of new songs alongside the 2023 to 2025 material.
Tickets for all nine Slow Down, Down Under dates have been on sale since Tuesday 15 September 2026, through the official ticketing outlets for each venue and the venues' own box offices. No presale is listed for this tour, and as of 9 October 2026 the shows are on sale.
Buy only from the official outlet for your city. Mobile tickets can be name-locked, so buy through the official outlet or its official resale service to make sure the ticket is in your name. There is no public 'presale code' to buy, and codes offered online are not genuine.
If a show sells out, as several of his 2025 shows did, use the outlet's official resale service. Sign up below for the alert to hear about added shows, a second night in another city or returned tickets.
When does Max McNown's 2027 tour start?
At The Ice Cream Factory in Perth on Tuesday 2 February 2027.
Which cities are on the Slow Down, Down Under Tour?
Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane (two nights), Sydney, Melbourne and Cairns in Australia, then Auckland and Christchurch in New Zealand.
Is there a New Zealand date?
Yes, two: The Civic in Auckland on Monday 22 February and Christchurch Town Hall on Wednesday 24 February 2027.
Where does he play in Melbourne?
At Festival Hall on Thursday 18 February 2027.
Are tickets on sale?
Yes, since Tuesday 15 September 2026, through the official outlets and venue box offices.
Has Max McNown toured Australia before?
Yes, once, in May 2025: The Tivoli in Brisbane, the Roundhouse in Sydney and the Forum in Melbourne (two nights each), the Metro City in Perth, plus the Powerstation in Auckland.
Is there a regional show?
Yes. Cairns, at the Fred Moule Pavilion at the Cairns Showgrounds, on Saturday 20 February 2027.
Who is supporting him?
No support act has been announced as of 9 October 2026.
What is his latest album?
Leave On a Light, released on 25 September 2026, which reached No. 49 in Australia.
Leave your email and we’ll alert you the moment Australian tickets and pre-sales go live.