North Queensland is set to become home to a brand new booking and promoting company: Wasteland Tours. Brought to you by Tim Pellegrino, a veteran of the live music scene, Wasteland Tours is set to revitalise the top end of the Sunshine State.

After 14 years of booking and promoting live music events across North Queensland and facilitating countless tours and one-off events, Pellegrino thought it was time to step out from behind the curtain, finally putting a name to all his hard work.

“North Queensland has always had a slightly untapped potential, and it certainly takes more effort for all involved to offer high level music events up here, but for those artists that dare to venture up this way, the punters will always repay their faith,” he told The Music. “Focusing on rebuilding the North Queensland live music scene after the ‘bleakness’ of the past 5 years and ‘opening the market back up’ for mid to high level touring acts, Wasteland is calling in all the favours with local venues, event spaces, booking agents and artists alike.”

And, to kick it all off, Wasteland is representing The Butterfly Effect for their rescheduled ‘Begins Here’ 21st Anniversary Regional Tour. Writing a heartfelt post on Facebook, Pellegrino revealed that the band actually led to his first role as venue manager.

“Fourteen years ago, I drove from Cloncurry to Townsville for a 'trial shift' at The Venue Townsville for their Australia Day concert with The Butterfly Effect. I had married my wife three days earlier, and we postponed our honeymoon for the opportunity to work at a large scale live music venue (with no promise of a job, or even payment for the day). Later that night, after the show had happened and everyone else had gone home, I was offered the role of venue manager. This band has always held a special place for me.”

Wasteland Tours is also managing In Hearts Wake’s rescheduled North Queensland tour for their 2024 album, Incarnation. In a statement, vocalist Jake Taylor said of the LP, “Incarnation is the shadow counterpart and sequel to the band's debut album Divination, with each song inspired by the meaning and ideals of a particular Major Arcana Tarot card. There are 22 Major Arcana Tarot cards in every deck and 11 tracks on each record, bringing the vision to completion 12 years later.

“But much like a coin with two sides, cards flipped upside down deliver the reversed meaning,” Taylor added. “Polarised in every way, Incarnation explores the dark underbelly to mirror and stand diametrically opposite to Divination.”