Stick To Your Guns @ UniBar, Adelaide 2/3/2024
By all accounts, Californian Hardcore heavyweights Stick To Your Guns had been tearing through the country delivering such wild energy that their Diamond ten year anniversary shows had already legendary status by the time they got to Adelaide on Friday. The UniBar was brimming with enthusiastic long-time fans and a joyful atmosphere, putting the gig up there with one of the best so far.
With brand newbies Stressed and hardcore outfit Outsider nailing the local support slots, the crowd was already fired up for fellow Californian legends Seeyouspacecowboy to deliver their live sound, coming to Australia for the first time with their veteran counterparts and capturing the audience by hitting all those nostalgia points for the elder emos still very attached to the post punk sounds of the early 2000s.
Stick To Your Guns blazed up with title track off their ten-year-old masterpiece Diamond and it was full swing hardcore party-time with fans letting loose to what is ultimately an album of nothing but bangers. The audience broke out into song for the quintessential woah-ohing in first unofficial single released from the album, Against Them All before that fiery breakdown opened the pit for business with young lads just about doing star jumps about it.
Vocalist Jesse Barnett yells “I wanna see a f*cking circle pit Adelaide!” before hard hitting track Such Pain incited chaos and a whole lot of 2-step action. Stand out track and leading single We Still Believe had everyone singing along while the fast forced punk beat raged through my veins making it impossible to not rock out. By this point the water cooler behind me was getting absolutely smashed as 40-something-year-old bros in Vans Warped tour shirts emerged from the pit sweating bullets and needing to rehydrate. Hectic dancey track Empty Heads was proceeded by Barnett screaming “Here we gooooo” when almost in synchronicity a body flies off the barrier into the crowd.
Barnett took the opportunity to thank the crowd for making the album Diamond as important as it is, acknowledging that the reception of it worldwide is what has made it so special. Continuing to bounce off the stage as if it was a trampoline, they closed the evening with bonus performances of Nobody, What Choice, and Amber.
Pit buddies shared sweaty hugs and high fives celebrating a successful rager of a show after the final track. I overheard a bloke exclaim ecstatically that he was ‘thrashed’ while in contrast someone commented that it was a ‘chill show’ which made zero sense to me after what I had witnessed, but I chalked it down to the stellar behaviour of the crowd accommodating everyone and looking after each other and general feeling of comradery shared. Stick To Your Guns delivered their most acclaimed and adored album with impeccable precision and stamina, creating the perfect atmosphere for one hell of a happy rager.
Live Review By Bec Scheucher