Shihad bid farewell to Aussie fans with final tour

New Zealand rock legends Shihad are set to bid a final farewell to fans with their last ever Australian tour.

Celebrating thirty-six years of memories and milestones, The Loud Forever Tour lands at Astor Theatre on Friday, February 21, 2025.

Sydney metal seven-piece Battlesnake will join Shihad for the full Australian tour, which also includes shows in Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

Forged in the fires of 1988’s thrash metal scene, Shihad quickly evolved into one of New Zealand’s greatest live music exports. In the years since, the Wellington four-piece—comprised of Jon Toogood, Karl Kippenberger, Phil Knight and Tom Larkin—have sold over a quarter of a million records, released ten studio albums, received multiple ARIA nominations and won countless Aotearoa Music Awards. They have also toured with metal icons like Faith No More, Tool, Back Sabbath, Motorhead, and one of their biggest early influences, AC/DC.

In 2010, Shihad were inducted into Aotearoa’s Music Hall of Fame, firmly establishing themselves as one of New Zealand’s biggest ever rock bands.

With gaps between albums increasing, growing commitments outside the band, and band members’ inability to give Shihad the time, focus and dedication it needed and deserved, they made the hard call to end the band.

“Personal relationships and professional work don’t always survive forever,” said guitarist Phil Knight. “But we’ve lived it all. We really have. We’ve lived the life that so many musicians would give their right arm for.”

“We need to pay homage to the legacy of this band, because it’s meant so much to us and also to the people that have supported us,” vocalist and frontman Jon Toogood said, before adding, “We’re gonna fucking hit it!”

Fans are told they can look forward to hearing hits from across Shihad’s inpressive songbook, which is teeming with iconic tunes like Run, The General Electric, La La Land, Pacifier, My Mind’s Sedate, Deb’s Night Out, Gimme Gimme, Wait and See and I Only Said.

Shihad’s The Loud Forever Tour lands at Astor Theatre on Friday, February 21, 2025. Tickets are on sale now from premier.ticketek.com.au