John Maus (USA) Aotearoa New Zealand Shows Announced

A figure whose influence has touched a generation of hypnagogic and philosophically focused sonic practitioners, John Maus will finally perform in Aotearoa New Zealand in May 2026. Beloved for such classics as 'Cop Killer', 'Rights For Gays' and his luminous cover of Molly Nilsson's 'Hey Moon', the US avant-pop artist's live performances are famously high-energy, dancefloor burning ragers. Maus will headline Tāmaki Makaurau's Double Whammy and Te Whanganui-a-Tara's Meow in May 2026.

No stranger to controversy, Maus recently publicly stated "I should have been clearer that I'm absolutely against Trumpism. It wasn't as forthright a denunciation as it should have been", following widespread concern when he was photographed at the January 6 riots with filmmaker Alex Moyer (TFW NO GF) and provocateur Ariel Pink.

This sentiment is perhaps unpacked further on Maus' dramatic recent anthem 'I Hate Antichrist', prepping ears for his first new album in seven years Later Than You Think, exploring "themes of justice, confession, rebirth, transformation, and spiritual warfare", out in full this Friday. Brought to you by Strange News Touring and Banished Music, here are the details for these impatiently awaited musical events...

John Maus

Wednesday 6th May - Meow, Wellington
Thursday 7th May - Double Whammy, Auckland

Banished Music presale from 9am Wednesday 24th September, subscribe HERE
General on sale from 9am, Friday 26th September
Tickets from Banished Music

Here's the official clip for ' I Hate Antichrist', from John Maus' forthcoming album Later Than You Think...

Experience the live energy of John Maus in his video for 'Because We Built It', from Later Than You Think...

Listen to John Maus' era-defining 'Cop Killer', from 2011's We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves...

Press release:

From 2006’s Just Wait Til Next Year to 2011’s Cop Killer, to recent single I Hate Antichrist, the musical career of John Maus has been riddled with iconic moments. Now, to celebrate the release of his brand new album Later Than You Think, the synth-tastic American songwriter with the unmistakable baritone is headed to New Zealand for two extraordinary shows, and to make good on a long-held promise.

In 2019, after a series of personal tragedies and the stresses of touring his high-intensity show left Maus feeling unable to perform here, he flew home urgently to recover, with shows here cancelled at short notice. Now, with five years of contemplation, retreat and recuperation, and time spent crafting his new record, John Maus is set to make his return.

The sixteen new tracks that make up his first album in five years are something of a retro-futuristic look at his career. Described as being “emotionally complex, alternately stoic and ecstatic”, these songs range in style from the bare-bones synth-punk anomalies of 2006 and 2007’s Songs and Love Is Real, the lush avant-pop cuts from 2011’s We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves, and, in a few cases, the symphonically ambitious endeavors of Screen Memories. But, more than anything, Later Than You Think finds Maus scrutinising his place in the here and now.

Throughout his long career, Maus considered himself to have been “constantly fighting the status quo: the Mickey Mouse Club, Coca-Cola, and all the institutions that reduce culture to its lowest common denominator”. Then, in 2020, he was infamously photographed at the January 6 riots, and was himself promptly “cancelled”.

In hindsight, he says, he now knows he should have been a lot clearer about his ethos and political beliefs in the wake of it all. “I thought my legacy would speak for itself,” Maus told Stereogum in a recent interview. Stating he was only ever at the protest to shoot footage for a new documentary film alongside film-maker Alex Moyer, these days he realises he ought to have stated his position a lot more bluntly. “I should have been clearer that I’m absolutely against Trumpism,” he says. “It wasn’t as forthright a denunciation as it should have been.”

Only John Maus could make the outcome from all of this sound like a party. Powered by “genuine emotion and radical sincerity”, the new album includes I Hate Antichrist, a song Maus describes as a sort of sequel to Cop Killer, and features a secular Gregorian chant that embraces French philosopher Alain Badiou’s anti-xenophobic sentiment that “All the people who are here are from here”. From the death of ego and descent into madness, this is a party we’re all invited to.