What Is It Like to See Powderfinger Live?

The Quiet Ending Nobody Should Miss

Powderfinger end soft. After the big first encore, the band comes back for one song, and it's "These Days," stripped right down. At the last show of the farewell run, at the Riverstage in Brisbane on November 13, 2010, it was the only song in the second encore, after "Capoicity," "Pick You Up" and "(Baby I've Got You) On My Mind" (setlist.fm). Beat Magazine, at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne a couple of weeks earlier, watched the band thank everyone, leave, then return for an acoustic "These Days" and a long bow while the applause kept rolling. On the 2003 Sydney Entertainment Centre concert film, Fanning plays the solo alone at the piano while the arena sings it back. Beat Magazine noticed fans who had lost their voices by the encore, which is part of why the hush lands. It closed the 2017 Splendour in the Grass cameo and the 2020 livestream too.

"Thrilloilogy" Is the Jam

The song you'll remember as the long one is "Thrilloilogy," a track from Internationalist that was never a big single and still sits fifth on setlist.fm's most-played list (115 times). A Sputnikmusic user review of the 2003 Sydney Entertainment Centre film called it "the quintessential live Powderfinger track." On the 2010 farewell it landed mid-set every night, and on the 2020 stream it ran almost seven minutes, longer than anything else played. The guitarists get their moments elsewhere too: on that 2003 film Darren Middleton finishes the "Pockets" solos with his teeth, and the crowd cheers Ian Haug improvising in "How Far Have We Really Come." Jon Coghill gets his own drum spot too: The Music Network heard a drum solo at the 2010 Newcastle opener, and the farewell DVD lists a "Drum Thing" between "Rockin' Rocks" and "Nobody Sees."

Fanning Says Little, and What He Says Is Usually for Someone Else

Don't expect a monologue. At the Myer Music Bowl in 2010 the band opened with "Belter" and went straight into "Lost and Running" without a word, and Fanning's first line to the crowd was a simple "It's good to be back!" before "Burn Your Name." When he does talk, it tends to be about a cause. The 2007 tour with Silverchair existed to push reconciliation and the life-expectancy gap for Indigenous kids, and the 2010 farewell raised money for Yalari, including a seven-song set on a Jetstar flight on October 28, 2010 where Fanning admitted "There wasn't much room up there for big-stage moves." During the 2020 stream, Double J's Dan Condon called Fanning's words urging viewers to seek help "important and perfectly framed."

Rough Edges, Bigger Sound

Powderfinger live is looser and louder than the records, and that's the appeal. The Sputnikmusic review of the 2003 Sydney show said the songs are sometimes rough but "certainly have a bigger sound than their album counterparts," and praised a band happy to "screw up a set-list if it means the audience can enjoy another impromptu solo." The 2010 Newcastle opener started with what The Music Network called "a blistering take" on "Love Your Way." At the Melbourne farewell the first encore built from a slow "Capoicity" into a full rocked-out "On My Mind" (Beat Magazine). The only complaint one fan-forum regular had about a Powderfinger set list was that it was "about 2 hours too short!"

A Room Full of People Who Grew Up on Them

The crowd is Australian, mostly people who came of age on the 1996 to 2009 albums, and now some of them are bringing their kids. The band said when announcing 2027 that many long-term fans, and their own children, have never seen them play, and that "People often tell us that our music is connected to their most treasured and joyous memories." Fans talk about the band like a national fixture. One 2027 ticket-holder told AAP they're "so Australian to me," and musician Chris Langenberg told Double J his first show, aged 10, was the band playing Currumbin Beach straight after an ANZAC Day dawn service, with the sun just up. During the 2020 stream, fan Luanne Shneier wrote she was "belting out every lyric of every song" in her living room, comforted that the country was doing it "alone, but together."

Powderfinger confirmed the reunion on October 9, 2026, their first tour in 17 years, after a week of teasers from an account called "The Return of the Electric Horsemen" (the closing track of Double Allergic) and billboards in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne showing "ALBUMS: 7," "MEMBERS: 5," "CREW: 235" and the date of the last show, 13.11.2010 (Noise11). It started as 18 Friday and Saturday shows and grew to 24 after the presale rush. All five members are back: Bernard Fanning, Darren Middleton, Ian Haug, John Collins and Jon Coghill.

A Big Top in the Park, Not an Arena

The band is skipping arenas. Every 2027 show is in a stadium-sized big top pitched in a central city site, with standing and seated sections, a food and drinks village, and what the band calls a "travelling rock and roll circus," part festival and part spectacle (Noise11; Time Out). The rooms are Brisbane Showgrounds, Cazalys Stadium in Cairns, Wellington Square in Perth, The Domain in Sydney, Ellis Park in Adelaide and Melbourne Park Oval. Nobody has said how many people each tent holds. Middleton's only hint about the staging: "We're going to build something pretty special just for you guys."

The Dates

Six Brisbane nights (September 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11), two in Cairns (September 17, 18), three in Perth (September 24, 25, 27), five in Sydney (October 1, 2, 6, 8, 9), two in Adelaide (October 15, 16) and six in Melbourne (October 22, 23, 25, 27, 29, 30), per Marie Claire's schedule of the original 18 plus six added shows. One outlet's list gave different dates for the added Melbourne nights, so check the official Live Nation listing before you book travel.

The Presale Scramble

Presale allocations went in minutes on October 14, 2026, with an online queue of thousands for every night, and AAP reported the tour was still "far from sold out" after the presales. One fan summed it up as an "Absolute mission, literally hours trying." Brisbane fan Erica Swannell won hers through radio after redialing: "on the 15th call I got through." General sale opened October 19 through Ticketmaster and Live Nation. No ticket prices were published in any coverage found.

Support Comes From Australian Acts Only

Powderfinger are picking the support line-ups themselves, all Australian, emerging and established, and different across legs. Names were due during AusMusic Month in November 2026 (Noise11; Time Out).

What Nobody Knows Yet

No setlist, run time or production detail has been revealed, and the band hasn't played a full public show since 2010. Everything on this page about what the night feels like comes from 1996 to 2010 tours and the 2020 stream. Treat any setlist prediction as a guess until the first Brisbane night.