There’s a certain kind of band that doesn’t just play music, they shift the molecules in the room. They walk out on stage, take one breath, and suddenly the air feels different. Warmer. Brighter. A little more open.
That’s the magic of The Head and the Heart, and this January, Australian fans get to feel it twice – in Brisbane and Thirroul – as the beloved Seattle indie-folk collective return for two intimate headline shows that promise to be among the dreamiest, most heartfelt concerts of the summer.
Fresh off their national tour with The Lumineers, the band is stepping out of arenas and open-air venues and into theatres – the kind of rooms where harmonies bounce off the walls, emotions hit differently, and the barrier between artists and audience feels thin enough to touch.
A Band Rekindled: The Story Behind Aperture
Fifteen years into a career defined by tender songwriting, soaring harmonies and quietly monumental moments, the band found themselves at a crossroads. Platinum records, global tours, personal changes – the weight of a decade can reshape even the closest of creative families.
Halfway through their Every Shade of Blue tour, co-founder Jonathan Russell realised something had shifted. The band was moving, but not necessarily moving together. What they needed wasn’t a new direction – it was a reset.
So they stripped everything back.
With Aperture, their sixth studio album, the group rebuilt their creative foundation from the ground up. No single songwriter at the centre. No pre-planned formulas. Instead, every member stepped back inside the circle and helped shape each track from the spark through to the final harmonies. A return to raw collaboration. To trust. To shared heartbeat.
The result? A record that Rolling Stone called “their best album in years” – vibrant, emotionally rich, spiritually grounded and full of the kind of clarity that only arrives after you’ve weathered the storm and found your way home again.
Lead single Arrow hit instantly with fans, its gentle urgency capturing the feeling of breaking open and breaking forward at the same time. And the rest of Aperture carries that same electric honesty – the sense of a band rediscovering why they make music together in the first place.
A Massive Year on the Road
2025 was one of the biggest years in The Head and the Heart’s history – not because of the miles travelled, but because of the moments that became part of the band’s story.
They performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, reminding late-night audiences why their harmonies can hush a room in an instant.
They collaborated with the Seattle Symphony, blending indie-folk storytelling with orchestral sweep.
They played a massive hometown baseball-stadium show alongside The Lumineers – a full-circle moment for a band that started out playing living rooms and small clubs.
And in between it all, they debuted new songs from Aperture to crowds who welcomed them with an enthusiasm that felt like both gratitude and recognition: this is the band we fell in love with, back with a fire we didn’t realise we were missing.
It has been a year of growth, reinvention and undeniable momentum – all of which makes these intimate Australian concerts feel even more special.
Two Nights Only: Brisbane & Thirroul
The band will play just two headline shows in Australia – small, atmospheric theatres made for the warmth and clarity of their sound:
Monday 12 January
The Princess Theatre – Brisbane, QLD
18+ | Tickets via Ticketmaster
Saturday 17 January
Anita’s Theatre – Thirroul, NSW
Licensed All Ages | Tickets via Ticketmaster
These are the kind of venues where the band’s vocal blend feels like it wraps around the audience. Where a lyric lands with weight. Where a quiet moment can feel communal. Where a single harmony shift can make the whole room inhale at once.
Expect a setlist that leans into the emotional arc of the new album, intertwined with the classics – Rivers and Roads, All We Ever Knew, Lost in My Mind, and the songs that have been part of so many listeners’ lives for so long.
Catch Them Before They Lift Off Again
The moment these two Australian shows wrap, The Head and the Heart fly straight back to the US to join GRAMMY-winner Brandi Carlile on her February tour – another massive milestone in a year full of them.
It’s a sharp reminder of how in-demand the band is right now, and how rare these intimate Australian dates truly are. They’re arriving in the middle of a creative peak – a moment where everything feels aligned, alive, and moving forward with purpose.
Tickets On Sale Thursday – Set the Alarm
Tickets for both headline performances go on sale:
Thursday 4 December at 1pm (local time).
A Frontier Members presale will run:
Wednesday 3 December at 12pm (local time) for 24 hours, or until allocations sell out – and they will.
With only two shows and venues this intimate, fans won’t want to leave things to chance. When tickets drop, they’ll go quickly.
A Summer Moment Worth Grabbing
Between their national run with The Lumineers and these two beautiful headline nights, The Head and the Heart are set to make January 2026 feel like a soundtrack – warm, bright, reflective and full of the kind of emotional lift only great live music can deliver.
Aperture has marked a rebirth for the band. Their performances have carried a renewed spirit. And the shows they’re bringing to Australia sit right inside that moment – tender but powerful, nostalgic but fresh, familiar yet newly charged.
If you’ve ever wanted to see The Head and the Heart at their most open, most present, most beautifully alive, this is the time.
Two nights. Two theatres. One band at the height of a creative resurgence.