Even before the cancellation of Harvest 2013 was officially announced, promoter AJ Maddah had indicated he’d begun negotiations to get much of the Harvest 2013 lineup out to Australia as a series of replacement headline tours.

Last Thursday, the announcements began trickling in, with headline tours from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and then Franz Ferdinand locked in for this November, but it’s been nearly a week and yet, no official word on the remaining acts on the Harvest 2013 lineup for Australian tours. While Massive Attack, Goldfrapp, and Wallflowers are now long lost hopes, several tidbits from Maddah had made the rest of the bill‘s appearance Down Under very likely.

So what’s happening with the remaining Harvest tours? Time to dive once more into the fertile twitter page of the Soundwave/Warped/Big Day Out promoter to find out just what’s happening with the remaining tours.

Firstly, full headline tours from Eels (the maverick music non de plume of Mark Oliver Everett) and Volcano Choir (fronted by Justin Vernon of Bon Iver) are still going ahead, but not until next year.

Eels were already likely, with Maddah originally pegging the alt-rock stalwarts for a November visit along with Franz Ferdinand and BRMC, but an errant tweet now confirms that they’ll be back in 2014.

Ditto for Volcano Choir (who were, in some ways, the catalyst for the Harvest 2013 cancellation) who will be headed to Australia some time in 2014.


Fans of the collab-happy Bon Iver frontman can take solace in comments from Justin Vernon when he first let slip of the band’s place on the Harvest 2013 lineup: “Maybe we’ll get there one more time in 2013 after November, who knows,” said Vernon at the time. “Whenever I come I always spend extra time. I’m very at home there.” (Just don’t expect it to be with Bon Iver.)

Meanwhile, fans of lo-fi folk rock pioneers Neutral Milk Hotel have been desperately clamouring for confirmation that Harvest’s collapse hadn’t shattered their hopes in seeing the band on their rare reunion tour.

Maddah has already noted that an announcement is still imminent, and could potentially happen today (Tuesday 1st Oct), “we just need to get them to agree new scvhedule [sic],” as Maddah tweeted. Some hopeful news for those desperate to catch some of the seminal In The Aeroplane Over The Sea in the live setting. Not such great news for some interstate fans however – there’s “no chance” of an Adelaide show and no Perth gig “as it stands,” says Maddah, “but I am still trying.”

There was good indication that Conor Oberst’s fiery side-project, Desaparecidos, were still viable for a November tour, but a post from the band themselves put things in doubt recently.


But it seems that Desaparecidos are still on track for a tour before the year is out.


There’s little to nothing on the remaining acts on the Harvest 2013 bill; as for a visit from M Ward, Maddah said he was “trying to make that happen,” two weeks ago. Funk metal eccentrics Primus and New Orleans soul rockers Mutemath are nearly all but confirmed as part of the second Soundwave 2014 lineup, while it seems that Brazilian indie dance band CSS are headed for the Big Day Out 2014 bill.

Which leaves only Superchunk, Walk Off The Earth, and The Drones. Being a local band who have just completed a national headline tour (with one remaining regional date in October), it’s unlikely that there’ll be any more touring from The Drones, at least associated with Harvest. There’s nothing on Walk Off The Earth – but considering no-one has really pestered Maddah about the Gotye-covering YouTube sensations, it seems unlikely he’s chased them up.

Last but not least, there’s been nothing from Maddah on 90s alt-rock heroes, Superchunk – who tweeted to a fan earlier in the month: “no new news on our end! still hoping to come down though.”

For details on the Franz Ferdinand and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Harvest replacement tours head here.

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