Today, our favourite Australian shed-rockers The Chats announce their return to New Zealand shores for a three-date tour this October. The punk anthem machines were last here in February for their first-ever NZ visit, selling out both of their Auckland shows and effortlessly filling up venues across the country.
This time, they are celebrating their new single ‘Identity Theft‘ available everywhere today alongside action-packed visuals! ‘Identity Theft’ is a cautionary tale about hackers stealing your identity and the video follows the boys on yet another hedonistic pursuit of A Bloody Good Time. Watch the video below!
THE CHATS IDENTITY THEFT TOUR NZ
THURSDAY, 10 OCTOBER – SAN FRAN, WELLINGTON
FRIDAY, 11 OCTOBER – GALATOS, AUCKLAND
SATURDAY, 12 OCT – MCR, DUNEDIN
Formed in their mate’s bong shed in Coolum, Queensland 2016 when all three members were seventeen, The Chats represent everything that’s good about Australia and nothing that’s bad: a rebel spirit, gallows humour and the endless hedonistic pursuit of A Bloody Good Time. Cold stubbies within close reach, 24-7.
The trio met in music class while at St Theresa’s Catholic College in Noosaville, a suburb of Noosa, Queensland, two hours north of Brisbane, and began practicing in the shed in nearby Verrierdale (pop: 775) during their final year of education (the school’s website notes “Whilst their music may not be everyone’s cup of tea, they have certainly made an impact, and they continue to Dare the Dream.”). Their name meanwhile comes from the nearby suburb of Chatswood.
Drawing influence from the same fertile Australian pub rock scene that spawned everyone from AC/DC and The Saints to Cosmic Psychos and The Hard Ons, and sharing a similar singular self-contained approach to their art as such latter-day Aussie rock heroes as King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, The Chats describe themselves as “dropkick drongos from the Sunshine Coast of Australia”. It’d be difficult to argue otherwise.
Their dress-down image of mullets, shorts, sports tops, thongs or a sandals-and-socks combo, and cheap sunnies celebrates this fact. But don’t be mislead: The Chats are sharper than you think, and they write killer songs that hold their own in any era. Their self-titled debut EP was recorded in their school’s studio in 2016 and featured seven joyous sky-punching tracks that combined 60s garage punk and 70s new wave punk (highlights included ‘Mum Stole My Darts’ and the 53 seconds bratty thrash of ‘Yeah Nah’). It was followed in 2017 by Get This In Ya, another thrilling seven-song slice of economic, stripped-down, early Buzzcocks-styles punk tension, whose lyrics read like a litany of things to hate for youthful malcontents the world over (overdue social security payments, lack of bus fare, Nazis).
