Recently Sleep Talk hit the road in celebration of “Everything In Colour”. The Adelaide band’s bassist and vocalist Josh Healey gave us a peek at his tour diary!
What happens when you have been sitting on a debut album for two years, released a few singles along the way and an album release date is set in place? Well, you go on tour of course!
Our feet were itchy, and we were definitely not gig-fit, so it was time to hit the road and perform to some brand new faces across the country. This became our first single tour, ever! We had been overwhelmed with the response from our first self-titled single released off our debut record “Everything In Colour”, still, we weren’t too sure what to expect at any of these shows. New territory for all of us, let’s see what happens, eh?
ADELAIDE:
Ahhh, a home-town show. Nothing beats it. Despite all of us coming from and being heavily involved in the Adelaide music scene, this show at the Crown and Anchor hotel was our second ever headline show (our first was Dec 2017 for our New Tradition single launch), so this was a special night for us all.
Starting the night off slurpin’ a big bowl of spaghetti up stairs, opened the doors to the show with all tickets SOLD OUT. I thought it’d be a good idea to bring my fog machine along for the show, but to my surprise since we last played the Cranka – they have installed smoke machines. Someone set the place alight a few years back, so they were well-equipped this time around. Did I want to blow $1500 on fines and close the venue AND the spaghetti joint upstairs down? The decision was a difficult one despite the consequences.
Dress Code and colourblind are two fantastic Adelaide bands, it was an absolute pleasure to share the stage with them on the night. Home show – done. Onwards to the east coast.
SYDNEY:
A piece of Sleep Talk will always be left in Sydney. We have developed some of our closest friendships whilst touring the east coast of NSW, and playing the big smoke was somewhat of a reunion for us all. On our first ever tour, we travelled the country with the now disbanded Pasha Bulka (RIP), and became instant best friends. Any excuse will do to see these friendly faces again.
Flying interstate, the night after a home-town show is always a challenge, but we made it. Baggage crew for Virgin Airlines weren’t exactly careful with our FRAGILE gear. Fraser’s guitar amp broke open from it’s hard case, hit the baggage collection floor…hard. Baggage crew were less than urgent about their response. Thankfully the amp survived, no thanks to the crew at Virgin.
The Brighton Up Bar is such a great venue; however how can one relax when there is a stairwell located right in the middle of the room? Surrounded by a glass barrier, it’ll take one over-enthused punter to smash the glass and fall down the stairs. I’m sure it’s happened before. Maybe that’s the charm of the venue?
Thanks to piss poor NSW lock out laws, we loaded out, took the party to Newtown and stayed out past 1AM – outrageous!
MELBOURNE:
Melbourne was unmarked territory for us for the most part. A few shows here and there in the past but our neighbouring city had been much left in the dark.
The Gasometer upstairs band-room replicated a house party. Minimal light, a bedroom-sized room, and graffiti on the walls – typical Melbourne. Caged Existence opened the show are set the scene. What a great bloody band.
A real packed room with mostly all new faces which is always very humbling. Our label friends, UNFD, celebrated with us on the night – with our debut album set for release in 7 days’ time.
A day off in between shows in Melbourne only means one thing. La Panella Bakery. If you haven’t made your way down to the humble vegan bakery in Preston, you are well and truly missing out.
BRISBANE:
We’d recently visited Brisbane on our BIGSOUND show run, so the valley was familiar and had been kind to us in recent memory. Fortitude Valley is a beast within itself, much like Hindley Street in Adelaide but spanning across an entire suburb – unreal.
I rolled my ankle 30 mins before doors, whilst walking to get a burrito. I was unaware of the torn ligaments in my ankle at this stage, but I powered on walking to purchase and eat said burrito, but realised I was in trouble after the last bite. Not much you can do when you are in the centre of a thriving party scene – push through the pain.
Being Jane Lane opened the show and you know what? It is so refreshing to see a REALLY GOOD punk rock band. We were completely blown away and stoked to have them on the show.
Our close friend Tom from Good Boy/Future Haunts let us sleep on his floor for the night. Coincidentally, Good Boy were launching their new single at the neighbouring venue next door. I went to catch their set after hours, but I wasn’t let into the venue due to wearing ‘sandals’. Birkenstocks are more than that, mate.
Tour is over… for now. We are back on the road again shortly for Ocean Grove. New venues, new faces, new songs from the album. We are now gig-fit, roaring for more.
Thanks to everyone who caught us during our single tour. It has been a wild ride so far. The real work begins now. Listen to Everything In Colour and scream the words right in our faces next time we see you.
Ocean Grove tour info: https://www.facebook.com/events/569592400221777/
Photo credits: Jack Fenby (Adelaide), April Josie (Sydney), Ethan Zahorodnyj (Melbourne), and Ophelia Symons (Brisbane).
