Mount Eerie Announces New Zealand Tour with Black Belt Eagle Scout

Revered for his songwriting work as Mount Eerie and frontman of the hugely influential The Microphones prior to that, Phil Elverum has announced his imminent return to Aotearoa for the first time since 2018 (when he was touring his heartbreaking album A Crow Looked At Me). Playing headline dates in Tāmaki Makaurau, Te Whanganui-a-Tara and Ōtepoti, Elverum has invited along Black Belt Eagle Scout (led by Swinomish / Iñupiaq songwriter Katherine Paul) for the tour as both backing group and opening special guests. Attendees can look forward to full volume, full band renditions of Mount Eerie tunes, in notable contrast to the intimate minimal aura of Elverum's earlier visits.

Mount Eerie has released two albums since Elverum last performed locally (bringing the count up to ten so far), Now Only (2018) and Lost Wisdom pt. 2 (2019), plus he's dangling the prospect of a new studio record on the horizon. Also touring fresh material, Black Belt Eagle Scout launched their third long player The Land, the Water, the Sky in early '23, reaping words of praise from Pitchfork and No Depression. Grab yourself a ticket for these magical gigs when they go live this coming Wednesday — brought to you by Strange News Touring...

Mount Eerie with Black Belt Eagle Scout (USA)
Mount Eerie (Phil Elverum) with Black Belt Eagle Scout as his backing band, plus an opening performance by Black Belt Eagle Scout

Friday 29th September - Dive Bar, Dunedin
Saturday 30th September - Meow, Wellington (early show)*
Sunday 1st October - Whammy Bar, Auckland

Tickets on sale HERE via UTR
*Tickets via www.moshtix.co.nz

Experience the video for 'Belief pt. 2 (with Julie Doiron)' from Mount Eerie's 2019 album Lost Wisdom pt. 2...

Watch Black Belt Eagle Scout's just-released Live on KEXP performance...

Press release:

Arguably one of the most prolific, yet enduringly enigmatic artists of our time, Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum is set to bring his devastating, sometimes beautiful, always incredible catalogue of songs all the way from his home in America’s Pacific northwest back to little old Aotearoa.

This time, there’s a twist. While Mount Eerie’s previous visits have been stark solo performances, where a pin dropping to the carpet would interrupt the ambience, this time Elverum will be joined by Black Belt Eagle Scout as his backing band, ensuring these shows will be loud, while remaining as intense and mystical as ever.

With a new album hinted at, and a discography to draw on that stretches all the way back to the late 90s with his previous incarnation The Microphones, you can be sure that these shows will have something for every kind of fan.

In support, Black Belt Eagle Scout will also be performing their own opening set. This will be songwriter Katherine Paul’s first set of shows in New Zealand, and audiences are in for a treat. To quote She Shreds Magazine: “If you can imagine all of the best things that the Pacific Northwest has brought us—Mount Eerie, Grunge, Sleater-Kinney, The Girls Rock Camp, and lush mountain ranges—reimagined and told through the perspective of an Indigenous Swinomish/Iñupiaq woman; if you can imagine the magic that would bring to your life, then you can imagine Black Belt Eagle Scout.”

Touring off the back of their latest album The Land, The Water, The Sky, Black Belt Eagle Scout make for a powerful double bill for these three shows.