Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
Palais Theatre
Melbourne, Australia
Friday 27 February 2026

Recorded by eckythump, mastered by kiwichrisha (Chris Hartstonge)

Source: Nokia Lumia 930 (called Lumia Icon in North America) w/built-in HAAC mics > Audio Recorder Pro app > 16bit/44.1 KHz PCM/WAV
Encoding: MAGIX Audio Cleaning Lab > FLAC (Level 8)

Track List:

Set 1:
00 - Introduction
01 - Scarlet Town
02 - Empty Trainload Of Sky
03 - Midnight Train
04 - No One Knows My Name
05 - Hashtag
06 - Barroom Girls
07 - Wayside / Back In Time
08 - Short Haired Woman Blues
09 - Howdy Howdy
10 - Cumberland Gap

Set 2:
11 - Intro to set 2
12 - Dear Someone
13 - What We Had
14 - Hard Times
15 - Six White Horses
16 - Ruby
17 - Everything Is Free
18 - Turf The Gambler
19 - The Way It Goes
encore
20 - Elvis Presley Blues
21 - Look At Miss Ohio
encore
22 - Method Acting / Cortez the Killer
23 - I'll Fly Away
24 - White Rabbit

Show Notes: The second Melbourne show of Gillian and Dave's return to Australia after just over a year, this time at the seated Palais Theatre, where they had played shows back in 2016 under the Dave Rawlings Machine and Gillian Welch names. As they have been doing on this tour the setlist contains certain staples, but mixed in with a number of lesser played songs, including the very rarely played Short Haired Woman Blues, the first time since 2018 according to the website known as setlist fm. 

Unfortunately for the audience and Gillian and Dave, there was an outdoor show taking place in the Palais carpark as part of the Palace Foreshore event, literally only metres from outside the wall of the theatre, and it happened to be De La Soul, who perhaps unsurprisingly play music that is very bass heavy, and their show could be heard over their quiet acoustic playing. Whose bright idea was this scheduling, seriously Live Nation what the hell?!?! Gillian referenced it after Short Haired Woman Blues, but it did lead to a funny story about playing in Los Angeles with a similar noise issue. Thankfully the neighbouring thumping bass was less of an issue in the second set. 

A tremendous set, including the amazing Method Acting / Cortez the Killer, just sublime. And may the uplifting I'll Fly Away always feature in their encores. One more time!

'You guys are incredible!' exclaimed Gillian, and we were then treated to a killer version of White Rabbit to close the show. 2 brilliant Melbourne shows done, with a couple of regional shows in Victoria to go to close out another incredible tour. Let's make this an annual tradition shall we, see you in 2027?

Recording Notes: Aside from the bass bleed from De La Soul taking place in the carpark outside you'll hear occasionally, this is a brilliant recording, I was in a great spot to get a good recording. Nicely mastered by Chris, any Gillian and Dave fan will love this one. If you want to recreate the experience of the night, crank up some De La Soul from another room in your house while you listen to the show. Enjoy!