The ‘Don’t Hiat-Us, Hate The Game’ 2025 Farewell Tour
In an aptly bittersweet announcement for these troubled times, Brisbane party-starters Velociraptor are tempering news of their return to Melbourne and Sydney for the first time in eons – as well as a pair of hometown shows – with the announcement that the impending east coast tour represents their final shows for the foreseeable future.
Sometime life just gets in the way of things, and on their Don’t Hiat-Us, Hate The Game 2025 Tour the band with the ludicrous amount of guitars who soundtracked so many massive nights for so many fine folks both at home and abroad over the journey will bring the good times for a final fun-tastic fling, hitting all of the east coast capitals to facilitate one last batch of outrageous memories.
Back in 2023 Velociraptor returned from a lengthy sojourn with the first of the stream of ear-worm singles which culminated in their sprawling and ambitious second album Computer Future (2024) – that opus upping the ante by adding dollops of psych to the band’s trademark garage template – and ever since their reappearance they’ve been absolutely tearing it up in the live sphere, refreshed and rejuvenated and relishing their return to the rock realms.
But even the greatest party has to end sometime, and while it’s never easy to say goodbye to the ones you love – especially with a band like Velociraptor where there’s so many of them* – this October, November and December the people of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane can party like there’s no tomorrow with the ‘Raptors (and their especially-wrangled line-ups of excellent friends) one last time! Be there or be elsewhere!
* a full quorum of eight ‘Raptors is guaranteed for all shows, potentially more where logistics allow (and a two-third majority of the founding trio will be represented at most stops)
THE DON’T HIAT-US, HATE THE GAME 2005 TOUR
Presented by Philter Brewing and Coolin’ By Sound
SATURDAY 25 OCTOBER – ZED50 – 50 Years Of 4ZZZ Radio
Roma Street Parklands, Brisbane QLD
w/ The Saints ’73-’78, Regurgitator, Tropical Fuck Storm, Screamfeeder and more
Tickets via Oztix
SATURDAY 15 NOVEMBER – Stay Gold, Melbourne VIC
w/ Sweet Nothing, Dippers and Keep On Dancin’s (Qld)
Tickets via Eventbrite
FRIDAY 21 NOVEMBER – Mary’s Underground, Sydney NSW
w/ Straight Arrows, Bodywire and Slowrip (Qld)
Tickets via Moshtix
SATURDAY 13 DECEMBER – Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane
w/ Supernew, Super Hotel & Special Guests to be announced.
Tickets via Oztix
A REFRESHER: THE VELOCIRAPTOR STORY
or
Brisbane’s Ultimate Party Band
Formed amidst the heat struck streets of Brisbane, Queensland in 2008, Velociraptor began life as a three-piece band conceived by the dynamic Jeremy Neale alongside friends Shane Parsons and Simon Ridley from DZ Deathrays, but would soon become four times the size and a multi-headed threat to ears and hearts around Australia.
Their debut home-recorded single, ‘Hey Suzanne’, unleashed a wave of attention, gripping Brisbane’s beloved community radio 4ZZZ and the airwaves nationwide via Triple J. As DZ Deathrays hit the road more frequently, Jeremy rallied fellow Brisbane musicians to fill the expanding lineup – transforming Velociraptor into a sprawling 12-member juggernaut by 2010. With seven guitarists wailing in glorious harmony, the band perfected their signature blend of raucous rock, TMNT attitude and layered group vocals.
The ensuing singles ‘In The Springtime’ and ‘Sleep With The Fishes’ rocked radios Australia wide in 2010 and 2011, while their self-titled debut EP cemented their reputation as Brisbane’s ultimate party band. Renowned for cramming a dozen members on stage every week and igniting dance floors around the country, the band’s live shows became legendary.
2012 saw Velociraptor team up with producer Cameron Smith for their mini-album World Warriors released on Create Control – earning rave reviews and more radio love. The single ‘Cynthia’ soared to #1 on 4ZZZ’s Hot 100.
In 2013, Velociraptor embarked on a whirlwind UK and Europe tour on the back of their second EP (also self-titled/mainly singles) as part of The Great Escape Festival before returning home to work with producer Sean Cook on their debut full-length album. The 2014 release of Velociraptor (yes, another one with the same name!) brought ear-worm singles like ‘Ramona’ and ‘Sneakers’.
Though the years brought tired eyes, sore ears, and plenty of hangovers, the band members spread their creative wings across numerous musical projects – Jeremy Neale, Keep On Dancin’s, Tiger Beams, Total Pace, Tiny Migrants, Babaganouj, Teen Sensations (just to name but a few) – while Velociraptor took a step back from the stage.
Fuelled by nostalgia and their 10-year anniversary in 2018, the band rekindled their fire and passion for the studio to craft a sophomore album on their own terms, and in their own time. Yet, just as they locked into formation with producer Aidan Hogg, the global pandemic hit – pulling the brakes on their plans for a majority of 2020 and 2021.
Once the dust settled, Velociraptor persevered to complete their long-awaited record, releasing Computer Future in 2024 via Coolin’ By Sound/Redeye Worldwide. Singles ‘Computer Future – Part 1’, ‘Leaving Hollywood’ and ‘Falling’ showcased the band’s many singers and each of their unique strengths.
Now, as they begin to embrace their studio-only/4000 shows-only/”too old for this shit” dreams, Velociraptor gear up for their final Australian tour in October through December 2025. Catch them in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne – anywhere willing to party with the Velociraptor gang one last time!
Drag Me Under is the latest single from Brisbane garage-rock outfit Velociraptor featured on their long-awaited second album Computer Future which is out now.
Another catchy nugget from the stable of founding frontman Jeremy Neale, Drag Me Under is an incredibly open and heartfelt treatise on the battering our mental health can take in this sometimes- overwhelming modern world, disguised in that age old tradition of placing the deeply personal lyrics atop a bed of hook-laden rock’n’roll.
LIMITED EDITION 12″ ORANGE VINYL
What critics said about the album’s singles:
“a nervy, searing slice of synth punk” Raven Sings The Blues (US)
“pure pop joy” Austin Town Hall (US)
“a gorgeously groovy musical journey” Yack Magazine (UK)
Technology has played an ever-increasing role in our lives for decades now, but is the world we’ve found ourselves in today everything we were promised awaited us? So ask larger-than-life Brisbane garage rock outfit Velociraptor on new single Computer Future Part 1 as they channel the jubilant euphoria of Devo at their quirkiest, with drummer George Browning taking the spotlight to calmly deliver the urgent missive on where we’re at as a race. Equal parts frightening and enlightening.
Falling is the latest single from Brisbane, Australia garage rock outfit Velociraptor. Eschewing traditional arrangements from the get-go, the incessant chug of Falling’s opening verses leads enticingly to a chasm of spectral vocals echoing the song’s refrain before exploding into the garage-psych guitar frenzy of the eventual chorus, with mechanical vocal chanting. Led this time by songwriter/vocalist Julien James, revel in the spiralling garage glory of Falling, with the new album out Nov 1.
VELOCIRAPTOR RETURN AND LOOK INTO THE FUTURE WITH TWO NEW SINGLES
In the many moons since Brisbane garage-rock behemoth Velociraptor pulled up stumps on the party that many pundits had predicted would never end and dispersed like ninjas into the night, it’s fair to say that the world has pretty much gone to hell in the proverbial handbasket.
After years of waiting in vain for a saviour, and knowing full well that desperate times call for desperate measures, after much contemplation the many, many members of Velociraptor resolved in a nearly-unanimous vote to get the band back together.
Only this time they were uniting not just to party (although there will be parties), but to save the day! Maybe not so much in an MCU kinda way – their budget probably necessitating more of a Bill & Ted vibe – but justice would be served. Cold.
But to whom? Once the dust settled and the boffins and science types within the Velociraptor ranks crunched the numbers, analysed the trends and tasted the tea leaves it became abundantly clear that there was only one thing standing in the way of humanity enjoying a blissful, happy future… computers!
Thus was born the second Velociraptor album Computer Future – the first since their self-titled album dropped back in 2014 – a collection of songs so excellent that you’d almost be forgiven for thinking that the band had been squirrelled away in isolation working on them the whole time they’ve been gone.
The first taste of this staggering new opus comes in the form of two brand new singles – Leaving Hollywood and Timebong – which both together and in isolation hint towards everything that Computer Future brings to the modern day table, the spectre of a technology-ridden dystopian wasteland inspiring two distinctly divergent, but entirely complementary, takes on the garage rock form.
Here’s a brief synopsis of both tracks by the respective singer-songwriters:
Leaving Hollywood (Jeremy Neale):
“Leaving Hollywood is the burnout and ensuing existential crisis of trying to pursue any kind of sustainable success in the biz. Written in the aftermath of the last ‘raptor album, and a succinct summary of the reason for the long break from being a proactive musical presence. It was a time of great isolation, financial ruin and lack of self care. But in the end a great catalyst to rebuild, to focus on other aspects of life, and to eventually return – better than ever before? Sonically, maybe. Headspace-wise, definitely.”
Timebong (Julien James):
“Timebong is a dark and twisted tale about a young person who finds a bong in 1986 that also happens to be a time machine. When smoked, the Timebong has the ability to send the user into the past or future by way of inputting coordinates on a futuristic numpad embedded in the side of the bong. But where did the Timebong come from? And when one smokes into the past or the future, what becomes of the present?”
Whilst wildly different both of these new tracks have all the hallmarks of a classic Velociraptor number: stupidly infectious melodies, hooks galore, guitars aplenty plus of course their trademark gang vocals and harmonies. Together they find the glorious duality of Velociraptor on full display, strengthened rather than diminished by the passing of time.
In their halcyon days Velociraptor were a force to be reckoned with, an amorphous collective sometimes up to 12 members strong – many of them wielding axes of some description – who attacked their live performances like they did their rider, with unbridled glee and genuine gusto.
They toured Europe and the UK, as well as sharing stages with bands the calibre of Black Lips, New York Dolls, OFF!, Radio Birdman and Violent Soho. The unparalleled camaraderie of their renowned live blitzes – plus sheer size of the band – at times threatened to overshadow the genuine strength of their songwriting and recorded output, with triple j and community radio virtually hammering earworm singles like Cynthia, Ramona and Sneakers into submission via repeated spins, such was their hypnotic appeal.
And now the party has started again. Only this time around the shindig is slightly more retrained, some might say semi-professional. The band members are slightly older, presumably wiser and there’s definitely more children hanging around the periphery, but it’s still definitely the sort of gathering you want to be at.
So settle back, relax, grab your timebong if that’s your thang, and get ready to rock – it’s time to go back to the Computer Future with the one and only Velociraptor!
Velociraptor are:
George Browning
Julien James
Jeremy Neale
Lauren Jenkins
Corey Herekiuha
Joshua Byrd
Jesse Hawkins
Jake Grossman
Ruby McGregor
Simon Ridley
COOLIN' BY SOUND 