FAITH NO MORE will support SYSTEM OF A DOWN on a run of Australian and New Zealand stadium shows in early 2027, in a pairing that ends long absences for both bands.
The four-date run opens at Sydney's Accor Stadium on January 22, moves to Melbourne's Marvel Stadium on January 27, then Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium on February 1, before closing at Wellington's Hnry Stadium on February 7.
Tickets go on general sale on Friday, July 31 — 10 a.m. in Sydney, 11 a.m. in Melbourne and Wellington, and 12 p.m. in Brisbane. A PayPal First Access pre-sale begins July 29, and an artist pre-sale for fans signed up to the bands' mailing lists starts July 28.
For SYSTEM OF A DOWN, these will be the first Australian shows in more than a decade; the band last played the country at the Soundwave festival in 2012. The Armenian-American quartet has never formally broken up but has released no new full-length since “Mezmerize” and “Hypnotize” in 2005, playing only a small number of festival appearances and one-off stadium dates in recent years. Drummer John Dolmayan summed up the band's approach in a recent interview: “Every show we play is always special for us, cause there's so few of them.”
The FAITH NO MORE booking is the bigger surprise of the two. The San Francisco group has not performed live since 2016, and it scrapped its entire announced run of fall 2021 shows after singer Mike Patton stepped away for mental health reasons. FAITH NO MORE last visited Australia in 2015, also as part of Soundwave.
The return follows a piece of business news from June 16, when FAITH NO MORE signed a global deal with 30e, the Brazilian live entertainment company, making the firm what was described as “the strategic and operational hub for the band's upcoming global runs” — phrasing that strongly implied more dates were coming. The Australian and New Zealand shows are the first confirmation of that.
Between them the two bands account for a significant share of the alternative metal template that dominated the 1990s and early 2000s: FAITH NO MORE's genre-splicing and Patton's vocal extremes on one side, SYSTEM OF A DOWN's lurching rhythms and political fury on the other. Seeing them share a stadium stage — with both playing their first shows in the region in more than ten years — makes this one of the most significant heavy touring announcements of the year for the southern hemisphere.
SYSTEM OF A DOWN with FAITH NO MORE — 2027 dates:
- January 22 — Accor Stadium, Sydney, NSW
- January 27 — Marvel Stadium, Melbourne, VIC
- February 1 — Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, QLD
- February 7 — Hnry Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand