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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
Josh Leeson

Smith Street Band celebrate 15 years of 'rat bag' rock

Wil Wagner on stage with The Smith Street Band in June at the Cambridge Farewell Festival. Picture by Peter Lorimer

MELBOURNE folk-punk rockers The Smith Street Band will celebrate 15 years in 2024 with their first King Street show.

Frontman Wil Wagner and his bandmates will play in Newcastle on March 23 as part of their 18-date tour, with special guests The Pretty Littles.

The Smithies were last in Newcastle in June when they delivered a rip-roaring set to a packed Wood Street for the Cambridge Farewell Festival.

The Smith Street Band have independently released six albums since 2011, including More Scared of You than You Are of Me (2017) and the ARIA No.1 Don't Waste Your Anger (2020) and produced fan favourite singles like Young Drunk, Death To The Lads and I Still Dream About You.

"To have been doing this for 15 years is such a blessing, we have been so lucky to be able to experience so much since those early days playing on floors to 10 people," Wagner said.

"We've been able to travel the world, make countless life long friends, share stages with some of the best bands of our generation and play some incredible venues and festivals.

"We're going to be putting all that excitement and nostalgia into our set for this tour, playing songs off every album and trying to give something back to all the incredible Smithies fans old and new.

"So much has changed since those early days, we've gone from rat bag kids to slightly-less rat bag adults, but the thing that's never changed has been how much we love playing and how passionate we are about the music we make and the people we make it with."

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