Beasts Of Bourbon Announce Two 40th Anniversary Aus Tour Dates

Beasts Of Bourbon, or The Beasts Be Suburban, will perform two very special shows in Melbourne and Sydney this August to celebrate 40 years of the mighty Beasts Of Bourbon.

Celebrating the good old days of rock and roll, Tex Perkins, Kim Salmon (guitar, banjo, vocals), Charlie Owen (guitar, banjo, organ), bassist Boris Sujdovic and drummer James Baker are heading for the road.

“With respect, this isn’t the Beasts of Bourbon,” the band said upon announcing their 2018 album, Still Here. “It would need to have (Spencer) Jonesy on every track to be that! But loudly and proudly this is: The Beasts Still Here.”

These upcoming shows at Sydney’s Factory Theatre and Melbourne’s Croxton Bandroom have a similar mindset behind them. “Obviously, our fallen comrade Spencer Jones will not be with us, but long time Beast Charlie Owen will help us chase that feeling one more time,” Tex Perkins wrote in a statement. Tickets are on sale now.

You can read his full statement below.

“40 years ago, I was a skinny 18 year old kid living in Darlinghurst in Sydney having the time of his life - playing gigs, taking and drinking everything within arm’s reach!

“Constantly meeting and bonding with people in other bands who would turn out to be lifelong friends.

“When my band up and left me in the dead of night by the side of the road with a month long residency, it was those friends that were there to help me pick things up and start again.

“Spencer Jones and Boris Sujdovic were there when we decided to call it the Beasts of Bourbon.

“James Baker, who would occasionally feed me, soon found his way to his rightful place at the drum kit.

“Kim Salmon, friend and mentor, and singer of my favourite band in the world (The Scientists) completed the early ‘classic line-up’.

“At first, we played a few songs of mine and a lot of covers.   Alice Cooper, The Stooges, The New York Dolls and Creedence were among the go to songs we all knew well but never had the chance to play live before.

“It was a free for all, fuck it, let it fly kind of thing!

“A few months later we spent 6 hours in a studio and recorded our first album The Axeman’s Jazz.

“As I said this all happened 40 years ago this year, so we felt obliged to acknowledge and celebrate this marker in time.

“Obviously, our fallen comrade Spencer Jones will not be with us, but long time Beast Charlie Owen will help us chase that feeling one more time.

“We hope y’all can join us for some dirty ol time rock n roll played by sweet hearted old punks from the swamps of Surry Hills.”

THE BEASTS BE SUBURBAN

40 YEARS CELEBRATING BEASTS OF BOURBON

Friday, 11 August – Factory Theatre, Sydney (Tickets)

Sunday, 13 August – Croxton Bandroom, Melbourne (Tickets)