Project Description

CHOCOLATE STARFISH
The Palms, Crown
27/07/19
(Live Review)

Reviewer: Alyssa Borda

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Chocolate Starfish smashed out ‘KICK’ and ‘FISH’ hits from start to finish!

25 years after the release of their first album, Chocolate Starfish continue to delight long term fans and win over new ones. On the Australian music scene since the early 1990’s, they quickly secured themselves a space as an influential force with their cover of ‘You’re so vain’, original hit ‘Mountain’ and perennial favourite ‘Four letter word’. They wholeheartedly earned their reputation as one of Australia’s best live bands of the 90’s, boasting two Top 10 albums and six Top 50 singles. INXS’ sixth studio album, six times platinum KICK, proved to be such a hit in the Chocolate Starfish Classic Album Series that the band decided to continue delivering a series of shows before cracking the next classic album. Why KICK? It seemed a natural choice,” frontman Adam Thompson muses. “We wanted to showcase an Australian album that had and still has a massive impact’, and KICK ticks all the boxes. It’s an exciting honour to bring this to life in our own way’. In 2018, the inaugural ‘KICK’: ‘INXS’ show at The Palms, Crown quickly sold out and spawned a flurry of demand and a multi-state tour!

Set one kicked off in true Chocolate Starfish style at 7:35pm with lead singer Adam Thompson walking on stage in a sequined black suit. The first INXS KICK song performed was ‘Guns In The Sky’ with sound emanating from Marshall Amps. The five other band members included highly respected, best in the business, Darren Danielson on Sonor Drums and John ‘Stones’ Nixon on bass/backing vocals, who have been working together since they were teenagers! Also Zakk Zedras on lead guitar, Norm Falvo on keys and Pete Mitchell on Sax/guitar. Adam stated..”Tonight the night belongs to you”. So it was a  perfect intro for classic INXS tracks to follow with ‘New Sensation’- the audience were up on their feet having a great time. Adam then mentioned ‘Let’s get tribal, I want the angels, I want the devils’….which flowed perfectly into ‘Devil Inside’ .

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‘Need You Tonight’ saw the audience all up out of their seats again and clapping along. Lead guitarist Zakk Zedras was rocking the Gibson!
A brilliant story telling format followed, and commenced with dark yet powerful  ‘Mediate’. The song lyrics were read out of a book held by Adam Thompson and the sax solo by Pete Mitchell was fabulous. The lead guitar on ‘The Loved One’ and ‘Calling All Nations’ was great with Norm Falvo delivering cosmic keyboard sounds, from a 88 keys Kurzweil keyboard.

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For the brilliant ‘KICK’ song, all of the audience were out of their seats, with a powerful delivery of vocals. Robyn, from the Bellarine Peninsula mentioned this was his favourite song. Adam then stated “Now rise for the National Anthem”!! ….’Never Tear Us Apart’ riff and drums filled the entire room. Everyone was now on their feet with phones held up high in the air with lights on. Lead guitarist Zakk is centre stage, then all of a sudden the music stops. A perfect classic moment before the bridge of the song starts again – so incredibly emotive when the guitar, the powerful drumming and the sax solo start. ‘Tiny Daggers’ and ‘The One Thing’ are up next then Adam mentions “Thought we should finish with this one”. So the last song for the first set was the popular ‘This Time’. Bass player, John ‘Stones’ Nixon, was up on one of the speakers rocking out and lead guitarist Zakk was electrifying!

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Set two sees Adam entering the stage wearing a black and white star suit. The stage looked amazing with subdued orange lights and patterns of swirls which saw hit ‘Burn for You’ kick off.  Next Adam says “We need to turn this into a proper rock n roll show”. ‘What You Need’ starts!  The crowd were going off to another classic INXS hit whilst Darren Danielson delivers the beats to perfection and some awesome sax from Pete Mitchell – who then effortlessly changes to guitar. ‘Shine Like It Does’ sees Adam providing some funky dance moves. Bass and backing vocals  are rocking from John ‘Stones’ Nixon as Adam then jumped down into the audience to perform the classic ‘Original Sin’.  A story then commences about how Adam met Kylie & Dannii Minogue in 1988which then  flows into a mini chorus of  ‘Can’t get you out of my head ’.

‘Mystify’ and ‘Kiss The Dirt’ are next – both amazing performances.  ‘Listen Like Thieves’ saw the lead guitarist on his knees right at the front of the stage and the keys were once again outstanding on this song from Norm Falvo. A little boy named Louis was then called up on stage to rock out with the band and Darren hands him a set of drumsticks. Last song for the set, was the epic ‘Don’t Change’ and saw the fans all up and dancing.  The band left off the stage at 9:30pm and in true rock n roll fashion, the crowd requests an encore. So Adam comes back on stage delivers a rendition of  ‘We Will Rock You’ under green lights.

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Chocolate Starfish then performed ‘Mountain’ –  an incredible beautiful song of theirs under green, gold and white lights. Loved the vocals and harmonies. The crowd got to sing a little too!  ‘Four Letter Word’ showcased Zakk on the guitar doing some superb guitar slides plus Darren  smashing the Sonor skins. Classic ‘Your’e So Vain’ was the last song where Adam requested everyone to be “up”, with plenty of energy and clapping from the audience. ‘What’s Up’ cover also delivered, which was a lot of fun for the audience,  as Adam got the crowd to sing in sections. ‘Ole Ole’ mini encore was a great party song! Adam then said “Hope you had a good time Melbourne” with the show wrapping up after another mini encore with clapping from the audience of “Your’e So Vain” at 9:45pm. Nice one! Great to see Adam and the Chocolate Starfish band doing meet and greets, plus signing posters and merchandise after the show! 

 

Check out Mark Jones‘s gallery of the show at The Country Club Casino here

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