Billy Strings may be on the other side of the world right now preparing to kick off his first-ever run in Australia and New Zealand, but he’s still giving fans back home plenty to be excited about today: In addition to announcing that he will stream his performances Down Under via both real-time audio streams and time-delayed video premieres on nugs, he was spotted on the Instagram story of beloved Australian psych-rock exports King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard hanging out and picking some tunes.
The American bluegrass superstar will spend his time in Australia and New Zealand performing at considerably more intimate venues than the major arenas he frequents in the States. On Tuesday, July 15th, Billy and his namesake band—featuring Billy Failing (banjo), Jarrod Walker (mandolin), Royal Masat (bass), and Alex Hargreaves (fiddle)—will kick off the run at the 7,500-cap Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne, followed by a show at the 9,000-person ICC Sydney Theatre in Sydney on Wednesday, July 16th. The band will conclude its Australian excursion at the 9,500-capacity Riverstage in Brisbane on July 19th before traveling to the 12,000-capacity Spark Arena in Auckland, New Zealand on July 22nd.
Rather than offering real-time video livestreams of the performances, which would leave most fans in the U.S. watching during the early hours of the morning, Billy Strings and nugs will premiere the full video of each night’s show the following evening at 8:00 p.m. ET as an exclusive for nugs All Access subscribers. If you can’t wait that long and don’t mind the time difference (bluegrass in the morning is pretty perfect, after all), All Access subscribers will also be able to tune in to audio-only streams of each show in real-time (for reference, an 8:00 p.m. start time in Melbourne = a 5:00 a.m. start time in Nashville).
Not a nugs All Access subscriber yet? Get started here for unlimited access to nugs’ extensive live music archives, regularly added audio and video recordings from ongoing tours, and subscriber-exclusive livestreams from a long list of tours and festivals taking place all over.
How else is Billy Strings getting acclimated to the time difference? If you happened to glance at King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s Instagram story yesterday, you were treated to a glimpse of Billy Strings playing a few runs on what appears to be King Gizz mastermind Stu Mackenzie‘s microtonal Martin acoustic guitar. Whoever is behind the camera—it’s not entirely clear—gives him a hearty, “mah man” at the end of the clip.
While he could have just been visiting his buddies to reminisce about that time they all raged Devo show together in General Admission in Sweden, we know from this recent Sydney Morning Herald interview that “some potential studio time has been set aside should their plans align.” Plus, beyond their friendship and their allegedly scheduled studio time, we know that a Gizzard crossover is at the top of his list: In a 2024 Reddit AMA, when asked about which artists he wanted to work with, Strings replied simply, “I wanna jam with GIZZ.”
We can’t wait to hear what might come from this connection. Watch the clip of Billy Strings from the King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Instagram story below.
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