Chicago alt-rock legends Wilco make their long-awaited return to the Opera House

Sydney — Tuesday 12 September 2023

Celebrating 30 years of music, Grammy Award-winning alt-rock band Wilco will return to the Sydney Opera House on Thursday 21 March for one long-awaited performance in the acoustically-transformed Concert Hall. Eleven years since their last Australian visit, the beloved Chicago six-piece will perform a career-spanning set and new music from their forthcoming thirteenth studio album Cousin – due out on 29 September.

Evolving from humble mid-‘90s alt-country origins, Wilco has transformed into a mature and eclectic ensemble, becoming one of the most critical and beloved alternative rock bands of our time. Their constant evolution and stylistically diverse repertoire has been carefully crafted by founder, songwriter, and frontman Jeff Tweedy.
 
In their three-decade career, Wilco has delivered a string of classic records including their 2004 breakthrough album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of the 2000s, it scored a perfect 10 by Pitchfork and was ranked by Rolling Stone as #3 on its list of 100 Best Albums of the Decade.
 
Their new album Cousin, produced by the singular Welsh artist Cate Le Bon, is their most adventurous and evocative yet. Le Bon’s influences – including saxophone, cheap Japanese guitars, and a cinematic, New Wave-style drum machine – drive the album into the future. From Tweedy’s electric guitar bends and yearning lyrics to cold, lonesome synths and contrapuntal bass lines, Cousin is an expression of the pain of trying to connect to other people. It's the joy of catching understanding in someone else’s eye, however fleeting; and the immutable truth that all of us are related.
 
“What an incredible honour to be welcoming one of the most revered bands of the 21st century back to Sydney Opera House, more than a decade after their legendary debut here. Wilco’s restless and startlingly brilliant deconstructions of modern rock music have always retained a vital humanism and warmth that’s seen them become ever more essential and loved. Come hear this mighty live band in the renewed Concert Hall and be dazzled and transported all over again,” said Sydney Opera House Head of Contemporary Music, Ben Marshall.