DMA’S, Hayley Mary @ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide 1/10/2023
It might of been a long weekend here in Adelaide but that didn’t stop a big crowd turning out seeing the DMA’S at Hindley Street Music Hall. Having recently released their ultra-impressive fourth album How Many Dreams? it only added to the anticipation and expectation for the live experience.
Hayley Mary opened proceedings and with limited rehearsals it was a solid set enlisting half of The Delta Riggs with Elliott Hammond (drums) and Michael Tramonte (bass) to perform in her band. Songs The Chain and Brat were good and after a couple of false starts on The Piss, The Perfume Hayley conceded it was her that got the intros wrong to the song. I’m pretty sure they could have ploughed on and no one would have known and it did seem to rattle her albeit briefly. Hopefully the songs Fallen In Love and Bullet will wind up on an official release at some stage finishing her short set on How A Woman Should and Would You Throw a Diamond?
There’s no denying the musical talent and genius of the DMA’S and their new album is loaded with great tunes. Front man Tommy O’Dell is a man of very few words and it would have been great to hear him speak more given that the fans were literally hanging off every note during the show. Johnny Took was jumping around and was really in to it. It seemed the most energetic I’ve seen him play before, even acknowledging that his mum and dad were out there in the crowd. Nevertheless, the DMA’S live experience is definitely all about the music doing all the talking.
That aside, How Many Dreams? was a spectacular opener in amongst a haze of smoke and a fury of lights. It was back to the familiar with The Glow and Silver. Johnny Took welcomed the crowd saying that “it is great to be here with you tonight”. New tunes Olympia, Something We Are Overcoming and Fading Like A Picture may well be set staples in time. Hello Girlfriend with extended outro suited the live experience and the cover of Cher’s Believe went down a treat and proved popular.
When the band returned to the familiar that’s when the crowd found plenty of voice and were quite lively finishing the main set on Delete, Play It Out and Feels Like 37. With four solid albums under their belt now no doubt it would be a tough deciding what’s in and what’s out but the encore was well considered finishing on In The Air, Lay Down and Everybody’s Saying Thursday’s The Weekend. It will interesting to see what comes next for the DMA’S.
Live Review By Rob Lyon