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The Drones Celebrate Breakthrough Album With 10-Year Anniversary Tour

Staff Writer

The Aussie veterans hit the road this August and September

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It's somewhat unbelievably been a decade since long-serving Melburnian rockers The Drones unleashed their acclaimed second full-length Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Float By, so it's about time they dusted it off and blessed us with it in full once more.

Although some lucky people got to see them perform the album at the Sydney Opera House for Vivid Live recently — and some luckier folks saw it back in 2009, when they polished it up for display at All Tomorrow's Parties — the band have announced that, in honour of their seminal full-length turning the big 1-0, they'll be embarking on a nationwide Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Float By tour throughout August and September.

It's a wide-ranging run, too — the tour includes stops at the Darwin Festival (Thursday, 20 August), as well as in Perth (Rosemount Hotel, 22 August), Newcastle (Small Ballroom, 28 August), Brisbane (The Triffid, 29 August), Adelaide (The Gov, 4 September), Melbourne (The Forum Theatre, 5 September) and Castlemaine (Theatre Royale, 6 September). They'll be joined for all shows by local doom punk Batpiss, with the exception of Castlemaine, where The Steve Miller Band — who will also join the support ranks in Melbourne — step up instead.

The Drones aren't only celebrating Wait Long By The River... in the live arena, however; as part of their "reissue our entire catalogue for the rest of the year" drive they're pulling through self-owned label TFS Records, the band will release the album on vinyl on the first time, in a sweet deluxe double 180g package, which probably means a whole lot to vinyl enthusiasts. The purchase includes a digital download (but why would you use it if you have the unmatched audio purity of vinyl, right?) as well as its own unreleased live album, so if you'd like to get on that sooner rather than later, pre-orders are open now.

Tickets for The Drones' 2015 Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Float By tour go on sale this Friday, 26 June. For more information, see theGuide or check The Music App.