Viagra Boys

Following a sold-out rampage across Australia last November – and currently tearing through a riotous world tour in support of their new album, viagr aboys – Swedish postpunkers Viagra Boys announce their live return, including the band’s first visit to New Zealand.

Led by the gravel-throated, gleefully unfiltered Sebastian Murphy, six-piece Viagra Boys are one of the world’s most unmissable bands, a reputation earned through relentless international touring – including a recent set at Coachella, where they kicked off their current world tour – and chaotic headline shows that blend satire, sleaze, and saxophone.

After dissecting a world ruled by terminally-online conspiracy theorists on 2022’s Cave World, fourth album viagr aboys paces through the crude grimy places where they themselves fit in the nonsense. One of the Viagra Boys’ greatest strengths is their ability to tear down everything and nothing at the same time. Murphy and his compatriots will build a charred groove, pick out surreal bursts of imagery to perfectly gouge at the sheen of societal normalcy, and then remind you that you’re probably wrong to trust their judgment.

Renowned for their explosive live energy and razor-sharp wit, on lead single and album opener ‘Man Made of Meat’ Murphy taunts your mum’s OnlyFans and hopes to score some free women's sweaters from LL Bean. And as the album evolves, Viagra Boys work through churning post-punk, post-apocalyptic dub, and skronking rock while denouncing “smoking crypto” and detailing a journey “stealing Poseidon’s trident from the Navy SEALs.”

Through it all, the band looks out at the endless expanse of Walmarts and crystal healers, searching for some twisted solace: “the important part of being alive in the big, stupid world is figuring out the world inside of you that is equally big and stupid.’’

Opening across two sold out nights in Auckland are Northern Rivers, NSW agitators Mini Skirt. Hitting like a sunburn with a dry, stinging take on modern punk, the band has rattled the walls of every pub, bar, basement, dungeon, and DIY venue in the country. Their jagged, raw, politically charged sound continues to win fans, including acts like Amyl and The Sniffers, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, COFFIN, and Sleaford Mods. All grit and no glamour.