If you grew up with rock music in the early 2000s, chances are you know exactly what happens when someone starts making that unmistakable “ooh-wah-ah-ah-ah” noise. Disturbed’s “Down With the Sickness” was one of those songs that needed very little introduction, and more than 25 years later, it still has the power to turn a crowd into a rather enthusiastic choir.
The Chicago metal band will return to Australia and New Zealand in April and May 2027 for their first headline tour of the region in more than a decade. And they’re not doing things by halves. Each show will be split into two sets, with a short intermission between them. First, the band will perform its landmark 2000 debut album, The Sickness, in its entirety. Then it’s time for a second set of career-spanning greatest hits.
Formed in Chicago in August 1996, Disturbed came together after guitarist Dan Donegan and drummer Mike Wengren advertised for a vocalist in local music publication Illinois Entertainer. David Draiman answered the call, and the chemistry was immediate. The band spent its early years building a following through relentless self-promotion before The Sickness helped propel them onto the international metal stage.
Since then, Disturbed have released eight studio albums, including Believe (2002), Ten Thousand Fists (2005), Indestructible (2008), Asylum (2010), Immortalized (2015), Evolution (2018) and Divisive (2022). Five consecutive albums debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200, cementing their place among the most successful hard rock acts of their era.
Released in 2000, The Sickness captured the frustration, alienation and defiance that resonated with a generation feeling increasingly out of step with the world around them. It went on to achieve five-times Platinum status in the US and spent 106 weeks on the Billboard 200. Alongside its unmistakable sound, it delivered tracks including “Voices”, “The Game” and the enduring anthem “Down With the Sickness”.
Of course, there’s that infamous spoken section in “Down With the Sickness”, where Draiman appears to portray a child being abused by his mother. Just like Eddie Vedder’s poor mum in Pearl Jam’s “Alive”, it’s often the mothers who cop it when these songs become famous – and for eternity! Draiman insists the passage isn’t autobiographical, explaining that the mother represents society’s pressure to suppress individuality. Still, if my son put that out into the world, I’d be putting him on eBay: free to a good home, local pick-up only, accessories included! His label and producer reportedly wanted the section removed, but Draiman stood his ground.
The second set should offer a very different kind of musical workout. Expect the likes of “Ten Thousand Fists”, “Indestructible”, “Land of Confusion”, “Inside the Fire” and “The Light”, alongside their more recent single “I Will Not Break”. And surely there will be room for their extraordinary reworking of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence”, which earned the band a Grammy nomination in 2017 and introduced them to an entirely new audience.
Disturbed Australian and New Zealand tour dates 2027:
- Thursday 22 April – Spark Arena, Auckland
- Saturday 24 April – Wolfbrook Arena, Christchurch
- Wednesday 28 April – Brisbane Entertainment Centre
- Saturday 1 May – Afterpay Arena, Sydney
- Monday 3 May – Adelaide Entertainment Centre
- Wednesday 5 May – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
- Sunday 9 May – RAC Arena, Perth
Tickets are available through Disturbed’s official tour page, subject to availability. For complete tour and ticket information, head HERE
For fans who grew up with The Sickness, this is a chance to revisit the record that soundtracked a particularly angry corner of the early 2000s. For everyone else, it’s an opportunity to hear just how far Disturbed have travelled since that first unmistakable vocal outburst.
Header image credit: Travis Shinn
