The smartly dressed Sparkadia where in Adelaide on Saturday night to promote their debut album Postcards which contains the high rotation songs Animal and Too Much To Do.
It took the band longer than normal to commence playing as they were plagued by various technical difficulties. The volume on the microphones were not correct and their seemed to be some kind of miscommunication towards the band and the sound engineer. After a somewhat tense forty minutes the band finally came on stage with their bottles of Heineken beer in tow.
The opening track was the melodic Sleeping Lion also off their new album. In each song played Sparkadia seem to have perfected the right amount of drums, guitar and bass needed ensuring that each track was not overpowered.
Lead singer and guitarist Alex Burnett does not take on much of a front man role as he remained stationary for the majority of the show only moving periodically to switch guitars. On the plus side he does have a soothing voice that has the power to transport you to another place and time.
Throughout the show all eyes had to be on the gorgeous guitarist, keyboardist and back up singer Tiffany Preece. Her enviable ability to play the accordion, blonde hair and hippie style of clothing made her stand out among her darkly clad male band members. On many of the tracks including The Plague and The Kiss of Death Preece’s vocals added sweetness to the otherwise gloomy songs.
Whilst listening to Sparkadia it becomes very apparent that this band are set for stardom as their combination of easy going rhythms and delightful melodies are going to appeal to the masses. Like many Aussie bands Sparkadia have already hit it big over in the UK having toured with The Thrills and Jimmy Eat World. Now they just need to conquer their own country.
The Postcards tour sees the Sydney-siders play at all major capital cities with Perth’s The Dirty Secrets, who performed relatively awkwardly at Jive with the lead singer Jarrah McCleary facing the audience side on whilst playing the keyboard. Just like Sparkadia, The Dirty Secrets were also plagued with bad luck when guitarist Mike Sanders had to fiddle with plugs and chords in an effort to be heard.
Sound dilemmas aside Sparkadia made a lasting impact on the audience with many people lining up to grab some of the bands memorabilia.
