7 November 2026 – The Tivoli, Brisbane – words by Lucas Bell
Less than two years after their last headline tour, Dance Gavin Dance made their return to The Tivoli, where they played last time in Brisbane. With another record up their sleeves with 2025’s Pantheon, the shows were going to be a celebration of the new “Wells Era” of the band, and with The Fall of Troy, and the live debut of Galleons, we couldn’t miss this one!
First out for the night were Gold Coast mathcore band Galleons. This band has been around since 2015, but exclusively as a studio only band. After 11 years of existence, tonight was their debut live show. Vocalist Tom Byrne is the only member of the band doing the live tour, however he was flanked with the incredible talent of Declan Le Tessier, Lachlan Walters, and Richard Alexander from Patient Sixty-Seven, each of which put in overtime on these songs. I cannot imagine having to learn some of these songs was easy, but god damn did it sound good.
A couple of song shout-outs I want to do include the opening song, ‘You Who Swallowed a Falling Star’, ‘Dark Magician Girl’, and ‘Casablanca’. ‘Dark Magician Girl’ in particular had some of the best vocal performances of the entire night, which feels insane to say when The Fall of Troy and Dance Gavin Dance are still to come. Byrne mentioned how the last song they were going to play was a very different type of song for the band, and he hoped Brisbane liked it. The crowd loved it though, clapping along to Alexander’s drum beat without even knowing the song. I hope they drop the track soon, which is called ‘Zenith’. It’s very different to the rest of the songs played tonight, but was definitely my favourite one.
I was so amped to see The Fall of Troy again. And off rip, vocalist Tom Erak seemed borderline unhinged and possessed (in a good way), telling Brisbane to get immediately into circle pit mode, as they played through 40 minutes of just utter chaos. They ripped out tracks like ‘Laces Out, Dan!’ and ‘I Just Got This Symphony Goin’ as crowd surfers flew thick and fast over the barrier. A little bit of Erak’s erratic behaviour came to the forefront about halfway through the show, as he spoke very shakily about how his friend recently passed away, and that the next song they would play would be to honor her, as Brisbane applauded for ‘Oh! The Casino?’
Erak thanked Brisbane for the love, and gave an impassioned speech about showing love to your friends while they are here to get that love, and later on, even mentioned how they almost didn’t make it to Brisbane, seemingly sounding like there were issues on the plane and they could have died? I wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by that part, but I hope it wasn’t that bad. Regardless, I’m glad they are here tonight, and Brisbane were ecstatic as they closed on the legendary track ‘F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X.’, as the phones came out and the crowd got LOUD on the choruses.
When it was time for Dance Gavin Dance to come out, the lights cut, and this weird, strange noise started playing. As the band made their way out, vocalist Andrew Wells proclaimed “Brisbane, we are Dance Gavin Dance from Sacramento, California. Let’s open this shit up and have some fun”, as they immediately opened with ‘Animal Surgery’. As was to be expected, the set was loaded with tracks from their new record Pantheon, but they definitely jumped around the discography throughout the set. This was my first time seeing DGD live, and holy hell, Jon Mess has an incredible voice live, and Wells is just as good.
Wells acknowledged the packed out venue, and told Brisbane it’s time to go back to the ‘Mothership’, as ‘Chucky vs. The Giant Tortoise’ started up, which got a massive cheer from the crowd. This was a banger live. ‘Mothership’ is the first DGD record I ever heard, and I never fully got into them until the Jackpot Juicer era, but holy shit this was so good live. Wells asked for Brisbane’s energy as they took us to Downtown Battle Mountain for ‘Lemon Meringue Tie’, which got another massive cheer.
Wells was having so much fun, and was being incredibly interactive with the crowd. I’ve been a fan of his for years off the back of being an Eidola fan, so seeing him for the first time was such a treat. He checked in on the balcony to make sure they were good, before going back into the Pantheon era with ‘Midnight at McGuffy’s’. Wells spoke about how rad it was to see Galleons finally perform live, and mentioned how he wants to bring Tom over to the states for some shows, before shouting out The Fall of Troy, and even getting a Will Swan chant going for the legendary guitarist.
The next part of the show kind of pissed me off a little, as Brisbane found a quiet section of the talking to start a shoey chant at the band. If any of the people in the room knew, or bothered to care. This band is a notoriously “sober band”. They have had issues with substance abuse over the years, and have all gotten clean and stable. Wells acknowledged this fact, and as a counter, offered to drink water out of a shoe instead, which he did, which to me, is WAY worse than beer. It was nice of them to have placated the crowd, but holy fuck, time and place if we do that chant good god.
Wells got the pit opened back up for ‘Speed Demon’, before taking it back to Jackpot Juicer as they kicked into ‘Synergy’. ‘Synergy’ is my favorite DGD song, and seeing it live was so fucking rad. Even better live with Wells on the Tillian parts. Tillians sections go a bit too high for me, but Wells’ range on this was just perfect. They played through some older songs in ‘It’s Safe to Say You Dig the Backseat’ and ‘Uneasy Hearts Weigh the Most’, before telling Brisbane there were three more left. After ‘Trap Door’ and ‘Blue Dream’, Wells gave another mention of how much they love Australia, and thanked Brisbane for welcoming them back with open arms, as the last song of the main set was ‘The Sticker’.
I spoke with Andrew and drummer Matt Mingus a few weeks ago, and shouted out this song in particular as one that impressed me so much from a vocal standpoint, because it’s one of the most vocally complex DGD songs I’ve heard. And it was somehow even better as a live track. I can’t understand it at all. The band then returned to the stage, with Wells sporting a pink boa for ‘All the Way Down’, and they closed their first show back on Australian soil on ‘Evaporate’.
