Australian rapper Illy will kick off an extensive regional tour right here in Canberra.
He will perform at UC Hub on 1 August as part of The Good-er Life Tour.
Illy’s seventh studio album, Good Life, which was released in November 2024, reached number one on the ARIA charts.
Illy is excited to continue touring the album. “So now that we’ve got a taste for it, I am READY and counting down the days til the Good-er Life tour starts,” he said.
Purchase tickets to the Canberra show at: moshtix.com.au/v2/event/illy-the-good-er-life-tour/180484
What do you love about performing at UC?
I’ve played there in the past a couple of times. It’s always a good time. The crowd has always been solid. It’s a good place to kick off.
Both the ones (there at UC – the Hub and Refectory) I’ve played at. The shape of the room at UC Hub is good; the stage is a proper stage facing the crowd and the room goes back rather than being wide. And it’s got the low ceiling. It’s a vibe.
How are you feeling about starting the tour in Canberra?
Really good. I’m from Melbourne and it’s freezing in Canberra. I would ideally have liked to do the colder states later in the tour… The Canberra crowds are always good. I had a few options of where to start first, and Canberra was my pick.
What can punters coming to the show expect?
It’s the most recent album, Good Life, pretty much in its entirety. There might be one or two tracks we don’t play, but also big songs from the back catalogue that people know. For those that haven’t been to a show, we’ve won ARIAs for Good Life, so we know what we’re doing. It’s always high energy. We won’t have guests, but we’ve got the full band, Patty on guitar and keys and Liam who is the drummer. We’ve played around over the years with different set ups and this one works best with the nature of our music.
Tell us about the process of putting Good Life together.
The album before that came out at the very start of 2021 (The Space Between), so this album started in earnest really in the depths of the second wave of COVID in Melbourne. I had some ideas for tracks, some that made the album, that were executed before that. A lot of it was made during COVID, a lot of the progress was from there, but there were a bunch of holdups on putting the album out.
When it’s just sitting there, I think maybe I can retry this or not – so it was longer than it was meant to be, but all the extra time made it a better album.
I like getting something done, finishing it, putting it out and moving onto the next thing. If you just obsess over making the entire project perfect, you’ll never release things. I like releasing music more regularly. So hopefully going forward, there won’t be 3.5 years between drinks.
The response to the album has been great, we’re really excited to be doing this tour. I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in.
What do you remember of your time performing in Canberra at Spilt Milk in 2017 and 2019? How does it feel to see the festival returning this year after being cancelled in 2024?
Some of the videos from that day are some of my favourite live shots. Canberra definitely punches above its weight as far as the crowd goes. Spilt Milk is the best of that. The crowds are better than the level of a Sydney or Melbourne show.
I’m happy that they took the year off to regroup; Australian music festivals are so important.
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