Sweet Pill, Bad Neighbour, Molly Rocket, Haliday @ Jive, Adelaide 13/3/2025
It was a fiercely loyal group of fans that gathered at Jive to see the second of the New Bloom Festival sideshows right here in Adelaide. It was a tough night with so many competing options with Falling In Reserve capturing the hearts and minds of many but for me the focus was on Philadelphia five-piece Sweet Pill. In short, they were fantastic despite singer Zayna Youssef battling a tough cold but soldiered on valiantly having mentioned that cancelling the show was not an option for them. The beauty of New Bloom Festival is seeing these bands who ordinarily may not have ventured to our neck of the woods. The numbers may not have been where they needed to be but without a shadow of a doubt those who went will be telling the people they know about what an awesome show they missed.
I would be bold enough to say that if give it another six to twelve months the buzz around this band will be even bigger and on top of that the privilege of being this upfront and close to the band like we were at Jive might not be possible as they will be playing far bigger venues.
Flying the Adelaide flag were Haliday and Molly Rocket. Haliday have a lot going from them and a band to watch in 2025. Single I’m Okay, You’re Okay is killer. Molly Rocket were loud playing a stirring set full of energy with highlights including God Damn, Asphalt and new tune She’s Cruel.
Brisbane band Bad Neighbour continue to build their reputation for playing a top notch live show and their set was case evidence of that. They have toured relentlessly and deserve a lucky break having put in so much hard work to establish themselves. The focus was very much on debut album “Millions” with highlights 20,000 Knife Fights, In The Car, And The Fleas and set closer Heart Pumps Blood the highlights from it.
It was a low key build to Sweet Pill with the band setting up and tuning their own gear and once things were in place Zayna took the stage saying “What’s up Adelaide?” With a few technical problems before they started Zayna dug deep with a few jokes to break the air before ripping through opener Where The Heart Is followed by Blood. Mentioning that this is their first Australian tour and last stop before a huge flight home Zayna mentioned how sick, and a new found appreciation of “marshmallow” flavoured cough medicine, she has been and narrowly avoiding cancelling shows with guitarist Jayce Williams adding that the tour had been a bit of nightmare with Cyclone Alfred and those shows cancelled and his guitars lost in another city.
Nevertheless, that didn’t put a dampener on things as for the next hour they played like there was no tomorrow. No Control and Glow were great. Dog Song was a stand out and after being asked to count it in after four the crowd were asked to roar. There was plenty to like about their performance and their 2022 album Where The Heart Is will be one to seek out with High Hopes and Diamond Eyes being another couple stand outs from it. Introduced as Johnny Brongus this new tune “is not going to be called that forever”. It was great to hear that despite the challenges there were some good experiences in there getting to go to a koala sanctuary and see kangaroos, wallabies and meerkats.
Jayce challenged fellow guitarist Sean McCall to do a shoey with some initial reluctance having only one pair of shoes and travelling home the next day. A fan threw up a boot and the challenge was fulfilled. Their set came to an end after Fate, Red String and Cut and when you played that great an encore is superfluous. Sweet Pill are a fantastic band and I’m looking forward to hearing what’s next.
Live Review By Rob Lyon