As I approached Enigma I was surprised to see a line stretching down Hindley St, a little odd for a Thursday night in Adelaide. Little did I know that Joan as a Policewoman was playing next door at Jive and the lineup was for her show.
Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! opened proceedings with their blend of indie rock infused with dance flavours sounding like the love-child of Les Savy Fav and The Rapture. Tonight, lead singer Dave Williams decided to take on the role of comedian and between each song he told amusing anecdotes directly plagiarised from television sitcoms or cult movies, substituting each band member into the place of the lead characters. It was rather hilarious. Their set also featured a song with a distinctly post-rock sound which impressed me greatly. These guys are certainly one of Adelaide’s bands to keep an eye out for.
Before the next set I ventured to the merchandise desk. I was a little disappointed to discover there weren’t any of the promised cupcakes, however they were giving out marshmallows and jelly snakes for the Immaculate Confection tour.
Being a double headline tour, it was Yves Klein Blue’s turn to support. They began with lead man Michael Tomlinson taking the stage solo playing a new song which definitely felt like a nod and a wink to Bright Eyes with a line “why don’t you love me like you used to?” The first half of their set was filled with new, yet to be released songs, which I must admit left me yawning at times. However the crowd seemed to love it as the front few rows danced around like crazy things. However, it was the final three songs that really whipped the crowd into a frenzy, with two songs of their debut EP Draw Attention to Themselves that have been getting high-rotation on Triple J: Silence is Distance and Polka followed by a new song that left me wondering how fantastic they could be if ALL their songs were this solid.
Next up were The Holidays. They continued the indie-rock/punk/dance theme of the evening with songs off their two most recent EPs. When lead singer Simon Jones encouraged the crowd to move a little closer, one over-zealous punter (who was already up the front) jumped on stage almost touching noses with him! A quick “ok, not that close” and they continued their set of music to dance to. I enjoyed The Holidays a lot more than YKB, so I was glad they were headlining tonight.
The finale saw the members of YKB join The Holidays on stage for an encore performance of the Beatles classic With a Little Help from My Friends reminiscent of the double-headline tour of Dappled Cities Fly and Expatriate at The Gov several months ago (which, coincidentally, also had Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! as the local support).
It was really good to see a sizeable Adelaide crowd wearing their dancing shoes, especially on a Thursday night and especially given there was a high-profile international gig just a few metres up the road. All of the bands put on great sets, and I may be a little biased but I thought F! SR, F! were the pick of the three. If they take themselves just a little bit more seriously, they could (and should) be the next big thing out of Adelaide.
