Ocean Alley have closed out the biggest headline tour of their career, drawing more than 80,000 fans across an 11-date run through Australia and New Zealand.
Stretching from January to March, the tour reached its final stop with a beachfront show at Glenelg in Adelaide over the weekend, bringing to a close a run of expansive outdoor dates including Sydney’s Domain, Fremantle’s Esplanade Park and Brisbane Showgrounds.
For Ocean Alley, the run marks another major step in what has been a steadily expanding chapter for the band. Speaking to Rolling Stone AU/NZ around the release of Love Balloon last year, frontman Baden Donegal described the record as the group’s favourite to date, saying of producer Nick DiDia: “We’re really grateful for his time and experience. It’s turned into a really great album, our favourite now, in our opinion.”
That album has continued to build serious momentum. Released in September, Love Balloon has now surpassed 50 million streams globally and returned to No. 1 on the ARIA Australian Albums Chart for a third time, while spending 22 weeks in the Top 10 overall.
The title track has also maintained its momentum, spending 29 weeks in the Top 20 of the Australian Singles Chart, while the band’s back catalogue has re-entered ARIA’s Australian On Replay Top 50 Albums chart across the opening months of 2025.
The capital city leg of the tour featured support from Nothing But Thieves, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Ruby Fields, Skegss, Birdland and Smol Fish, while regional and coastal dates included appearances from Skegss, Allah-Las, Babe Rainbow, The Grogans, Mid Drift, Le Shiv and Seaside.
The scale of the run also reflects just how far Ocean Alley’s live operation has evolved. As Mitch Galbraith recently told Rolling Stone AU/NZ, the band’s growth brought a new level of discipline and pressure: “The show had to be a lot more professional.” What was once a looser proposition has become a finely tuned live machine, something this latest open-air run made clear.
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That evolution has played out both locally and offshore. Earlier this year, the band landed four tracks in triple j’s Hottest 100 of 2025 — “Love Balloon” (No. 17), “First Blush” (No. 43), “Drenched” (No. 44) and “Left of the Dealer” (No. 87). “First Blush” also opened the year as triple j’s most-played track, while “Life in Love” has remained in high rotation across commercial radio.
Internationally, Ocean Alley’s recent run has included a headline show at London’s Alexandra Palace, tours through North and South America — including first-time dates in Brazil, Chile and Mexico — and appearances at major festivals including Lollapalooza, Sziget and Austin City Limits.
That overseas expansion has been years in the making. As drummer Tom O’Brien told Rolling Stone AU/NZ, building the band internationally has been “slow progress, but an enjoyable one,” with Ocean Alley using their success at home as a springboard into global markets.
The tour has also translated into digital traction, with album closer “Drenched” now driving a growing social trend. Soundtracked by the lyric “Livin’ in the moment like when we were kids,” the track has generated more than 3.5 million views across 17,000 social posts and counting.
With more than one billion streams worldwide, a chart-topping current album and a live draw that now stretches well beyond traditional theatres, Ocean Alley continue to cement their position as one of Australia’s most bankable and globally competitive independent acts.
