For almost 30 years, Arab Strap have traversed drink, drugs and sexual encounters with brazen honesty—all delivered in singer Aidan Moffat’s self-lacerating Scottish tongue. With a catalogue of increasingly complex albums, Arab Strap conjure the club and a smoke-filled bedroom in the same drag. 2021’s As Days Get Dark, their first album in 16 years, is an existential confrontation of middle-aged masculinity, and the sordid comedy and horror that come with it. The Scottish icons of post-rock last toured Australia over 20 years ago as a duo, but this is the first time they’ll be bringing along a full band. A decades-long waiting game for fans is finally over.

Co-headlining The Forum is Xylouris White—RISING's Artist in Residence Jim White (Dirty Three, Springtime, The Double) and the Cretan laouto (lute) player and singer Giorgos Xylouris. Xylouris White has released four albums produced by Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto. A founding member of seminal Australian group Dirty Three, White's drumming mastery has led him to work with artists including Cat Power, Bill Callahan, Mary Margaret O'Hara and Ed Kuepper. Xylouris is part of a multi-generational family of virtuoso Cretan musicians. Xylouris and White have taken their instruments, which normally play supporting roles, to new territories as melodic leads.

As RISING's Artist in Residence, Jim White collaborates across the program. Be sure to check out his shows with Australian icon Ed Kuepper; guitarist Marisa Anderson; and with guitarist Emmett Kelly as The Double, with choreographer Jo Lloyd.