Sydney's Sticky Fingers have only just kicked off their national 'Land of Pleasure Tour', with their first show in Adelaide only marking their second overall. While they remain the same bunch of lads who would play down by the beach frequently when in town years ago, you can tell that they've developed into a band with a refined creative direction - the playfulness is still there, but the music ante has been upped and it translates brilliantly on the live front.
Luke Carlino draws an enthusiastic crowd early in the night; armed with guitar skills and the advantages of some well-wired loops and pedals, Carlino had the people gathered by the stage hooked from early on. It's always cool when you go to a show and even the first opening act has a bit of something about them that makes you happy you arrived early enough to see them. This is my first time seeing the Adelaide performer and I get why he's been generating a bit of buzz - there's lashings of Dallas Green in his delivery, tastes of some sweet R&B permeating through the grooves of his music and generally, he's very endearing to watch.
Second support act tonight comes in the form of a shirtless Lyall Moloney. A talented reggae flow is exuded from the Sydney performer almost instantly and like Carlino before him, you don't get bored by the solo performer/guitar/pedals set up. The sound in the venue could have been a lot better, which I feel would've taken the quality of the set up tenfold but regardless, Moloney's set was really entertaining. Fusing hip-hop with dub and some cool roots influences into his set clearly went down well with the now growing crowd and by the end of his time onstage, the applause was loud and definitely well-deserved.
I've not seen Sticky Fingers play The Gov before, but I remember seeing one of their first shows at the Jetty Bar in Glenelg when I first started writing about music here. Seeing how much they've grown as a live act since then has been fun to track and now here we are, a few records in and more than a few live tours under their belt. The new Sti Fi album, Land of Pleasure, has become one of my favourites of 2014 - the easy going swagger with that excellent funked out back beat has made Sticky Fingers stand out among their peers and to see the following they've amassed around the country over the last few years is only testament to the clear talent they possess.
The security on stage have their work cut out for them tonight, as girls and guys alike take it upon themselves to crowd surf/propel themselves up on the stage and dance and attempt selfies with the band as they performed (one girl even managed to land a kiss on Paddy before being ripped off him and thrown back into the crowd). How more guitar leads weren't yanked out in the process is beyond me. The band doesn't let the multiple invaders get to them, they look amused by it more than anything else, even impressed when one guy managed to get onstage and jump back off, with Beaker's beer in hand.
Highlights in "Liquorlip Loaded Gun", "Velvet Skies", "Australia Street", "Gold Snafu" and of course, "Caress Your Soul", stood out for both the vigour they were performed with and how the crowd responded. The first of two sold out shows in Adelaide tonight would be enough to tell you the crowd was always going to be enthusiastic, but even this was more than I had been expecting for a Friday night. I can only imagine Saturday night's punters are going to be up another level. The band announced they'd be partying on at Rocket Bar afterward, where they were to be DJing, and you could tell the party was far from over for a lot of people in here tonight.
"What we have here is a collection of unique tunes from a band that is still developing and carving a name for themselves on the local scene. ...I definitely think they're on to something good."
The above is from the first review I ever gave Sticky Fingers back in 2011 and I'm glad they stuck at it and have gotten to this point - there's still a lot more to come from these boys though and if this last record's been anything to go by, it's going to be a fun time ahead.
