Animals As Leaders Cancel 2025 Australian Tour
The American instrumental have been forced to withdraw from their Aussie tour due to injury.
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Instrumental prog rockers Animals As Leaders have announced they’ve been forced to cancel their upcoming Australian tour after drummer Matt Garstka sustained a “serious injury.”
Taking to social media to reveal the devastating news, Animals As Leaders explained how Garstka has “a serious arm injury” that requires immediate surgery
“To our fans in Mexico, South America, and Australia,” the statement starts.
“We have some unfortunate news. We’re going to have to cancel our upcoming tour dates. Matt sustained a serious arm injury that requires surgery, and there’s no way we can perform without him.
“Rather than leave things up in the air, we’re calling it now and putting our full focus into writing the next Animals As Leaders album. New material is already in the works, and we’ll have more to share soon.
“We know this news sucks - especially for those of you who’ve been waiting a long time to see us live. Cancelling isn’t something we take lightly. Thank you for sticking with us. We’ll make it back to your cities with new music and a set that hits even harder.
“Respect,
“Animals As Leaders.”
As the statement clarifies, the cancellation has also impacted the band’s South American and Mexican tour, with all live dates canned.
Car Bomb, who were meant to be the support act on tour, released their own statement about the tour cancellation, “Due to the unfortunate incident of Matt Garstka suffering an arm injury, our upcoming tour with Animals As Leaders has been cancelled. This would have been our first time playing Australia, so it pains us to say we will not be performing for y’all this September.
“We wish our brother Matt a quick and full recovery and hope we’ll be able to finally make it over to Australia soon.”
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Animals As Leaders’ Aussie tour was to commemorate the 10th anniversary of their Washington act’s third studio album, The Joy of Motion.
The record was a huge hit for Animals As Leaders, peaking at #23 on the Billboard 200 and spawning the singles ‘Kaskade’, ‘Physical Education’ and ‘The Woven Web’.
Last in Australia in 2023, the trio of lead guitarist and bassist Tosin Abasi, rhythm guitarist and bassist Javier Reyes and drummer Matt Garstka have put plans to tour the world on hold and are concentrating on recording their next album.
Hopefully Garstka will recover quickly and we won’t have to wait too long before they announce another tour Down Under.
