Queens of the Stone Age just did two things at once: they released “Easy Street,” their first new song since 2023’s In Times New Roman, and they laid out a full Australia and New Zealand stretch that runs through Dec. 20. The single arrives via Matador Records / Remote Control Records, and the band is positioning it as the soundtrack to a full-on Australasian return, with a brand-new show format that Australian and New Zealand fans will see first.

If you are the kind of operator who watches release-to-tour timing, this is the clean version of the playbook. “Easy Street” is a mid-tempo track featuring vocals from Nikki Lane. It comes with a music video directed by Tony Wolski and Christopher Gruse, based on a story and idea by frontman Josh Homme. And the band is not pretending it is perfect pop polish. Homme described it as “kind of a funny song,” then explained the band made it “the way you’d make a demo,” leaving “mistakes left in,” no click track, and even claps that are “not great,” because the imperfection gives it something “you can’t fake.” That attitude is not just marketing. It signals a creative process that likely feeds the energy of the live show, where “human” imperfections are part of the product.

Now zoom out to the tour. As currently scheduled, Homme, Troy Van Leeuwen, Michael Shuman, Dean Fertita, and Jon Theodore will embark on a seven-city visit of capital cities and at least two regional centers. The itinerary is built for a mix of venues, starting Dec. 8 at The Drive in Adelaide. The run then moves to arena stops, with shows in Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle, and Brisbane, and it wraps on Dec. 20 at Auckland’s Spark Arena.

Here are the dates, as listed: Dec. 8 - The Drive, Adelaide Dec. 11 - MyState Bank Arena, Hobart Dec. 13 - Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Dec. 15 - Afterpay Arena, Sydney Dec. 16 - Newcastle Entertainment Centre Dec. 18 - Brisbane Entertainment Centre Dec. 20 - Spark Arena, Auckland

Special guests are also confirmed for the ANZ tour: Primus and Tropical Fck Storm. That matters for anyone thinking about audience mix and ticket conversion. Primus brings late-90s alternative credibility, while Tropical Fck Storm is homegrown experimental art-punk. Pairing these types of support acts is a subtle but real lever. It can widen the “reason to go” beyond pure nostalgia for QOTSA, because the bill itself becomes a sampler of adjacent scenes.

The timing also positions this run against QOTSA’s other commitments. The announcement notes Australian and New Zealand fans will be the first to experience the brand-new show following QOTSA’s current European tour with System of a Down, and the run includes scheduled U.S. dates with Foo Fighters. Live Nation is also referenced as the production for the Australia and New Zealand dates, and the band has a headline show in Iceland set for October. For industry watchers, that sequencing hints at a logistical reality: touring is not just about the band, it is about production teams aligning stages, crew, and venue calendars across regions. When a band chooses to debut the new show in ANZ before the U.S., it tells you where they expect the strongest early momentum, or where the rollout schedule fits best.

On the operational side, the commercial rollout is straightforward but not trivial: the general on sale begins Monday, July 20 at 11am. Ticket and tour information is directed to livenation.com.au and livenation.co.nz. For ticketing platforms, venue partners, and promoters, on-sale timing is where forecasts get stress-tested. A new single with a distinctive creative story, an arena-and-outdoor mix, and high-recognition support acts can all push early demand. And if the general sale window is tight, it increases the risk that early queues are the difference between “looks sold-out” and “actually sells through.”

Finally, zoom in on the incentives embedded in the music itself. Homme’s comments frame “Easy Street” as something made with a demo mentality: leaving imperfections, speeding up and slowing down, and treating claps as part of the human texture. That worldview often translates on stage into arrangements that move, not perform. If you are an executive deciding how to underwrite live shows, it is a reminder that the product is not the notes. It is the friction between precision and mess. The tour announcement turns that philosophy into a calendar, with a clear start on Dec. 8 and a hard finish on Dec. 20 in Auckland. For peers across live production and artist management, this is the kind of release-to-tour alignment that can quietly reshape demand weeks before the first show date hits the headline feed.