With Gut Health’s debut album Stiletto approaching, the dance-punk band have revealed their East Coast tour dates.
The tour kicks off at The Forum in Naarm/Melbourne on Tuesday, September 17th, followed by The Enmore in Gadigal Land/Sydney on Friday, September 20th. The band returns to Naarm/Melbourne for a show at The Tote on Saturday, October 19th, then heads to The Lansdowne in Gadigal Land/Sydney on Friday, October 25th, before wrapping up at Black Bear Lodge in Meanjin/Brisbane on Saturday, October 26th.
The Melbourne and Sydney shows will see Gut Health supporting the Australian neo-soul group Hiatus Kaiyote. Tickets are on sale now (see full details below).
Set for release on October 11th, Stiletto is the highly anticipated follow-up to their debut EP, Electric Party Chrome Girl, which earmarked Gut Health as a band to watch through energetic tracks like “Inner Norm.”’
The band just released the title track, embodying the album’s theme of the “healing qualities of consensual rage,” according to lead singer Athina Uh Oh.
“I think this is most reflective in the dynamics and energy we expel in the song,” she says. “I tend to write lyrics that are image-based, up for interpretation, intended to allow you to feel and make what you want of them. We ultimately want people to feel a sense of catharsis. The flow – the push and pull.”
“Stiletto” actually dates back all the way to Gut Health’s first gig in 2021. “I had written the words a while back before the band’s inception, and found them in the corners of my notes app while we were rehearsing together,” Athina explains.
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“The song took a stream of consciousness approach in both the lyrics and instrumentation. We all really mesh as individuals, as friends who are chosen family, and writing this song revealed that can be reflected sonically as bandmates.”
Never a band to shy away from political issues, “Stiletto” is a “condemnation of contemporary so-called Australia, how it is fabricated and capitalistic, and how its real owners are Indigenous people.”
“These are settler words and images though – people should really go and listen to Indigenous mob,” Athina adds. “We believe that people should feel free to expel feelings like rage, hurt, and anger in a space that is safe, surrounded by people who are safe.
“It’s when these feelings are used to intentionally hurt or abuse people that it becomes unethical. They are human emotions though, used to help us make sense of the world and to see injustice. This kind of draws back to some of our influences around the dance-punk sound – hardcore shows and raves often take on a similar approach.”
“Stiletto” is the third taste of Gut Health’s forthcoming album, following “Cool Moderator” and “Separate States.”
The sextet – Athina and Adam are joined by Eloise Murphy-Hill (guitar), Dom Willmott (guitar, synth), Angus Fletcher (percussion, synth), and Myka Wallace (drums) – have become one of Australia’s most promising bands in the country’s punk and post-punk scenes since first forming in an Inner Melbourne sharehouse a few years ago.
Their burgeoning success has led them to share stages with Queens of the Stone Age, Mudhoney, RVG, and Body Type, showcase their music at BIGSOUND and SXSW Sydney, and complete their second tour of Europe this year.
“Stiletto” is the title track of Gut Health’s debut album, out Friday, October 11th via Highly Contagious / AWAL from guthealth.space.
Gut Health Australian Tour
Tuesday, September 17th
The Forum – Naarm/Melbourne*
Friday, September 20th
The Enmore – Gadigal Land/Sydney*
Saturday, October 19th
The Tote – Naarm/Melbourne
Tickets
Friday, October 25th
The Lansdowne – Gadigal Land/Sydney
Tickets
Saturday, October 26th
Black Bear Lodge – Meanjin/Brisbane
Tickets
* with Hiatus Kaiyote
