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Review: Chocolate Starfish At The Gov

Friday the 13th of April saw Chocolate Starfish perform at the classic Gov music venue in Adelaide

Friday the 13th of April saw Chocolate Starfish perform at the classic Gov music venue in Adelaide. Chocolate Starfish released a new album titled ‘Spider’ which was released at the absolute last minute of last year on the 31st of December.

It was a great night full of positive energy, there was certainly nothing scary in the slightest at all with good vibes all round and everyone there seemed in a good state of mind, down to party, and enjoy some great quality live music, and what a party it was! From start to finish it was a night full of entertainment (and surprises), from the great music on stage, to borderline X-rated moments at times by the promiscuous singer of the headlining act, and even a special guest appearance towards the end of the night…

The opening act to warm everyone up was a local band called ‘Southern Empire’ and they were bloody brilliant! With an incredibly dynamic sound and mix of genres from across the ages being displayed in their original compositions, and a solid frontman, with a backing band who was nothing less than remarkable to back it all up. While the crowds opinions seemed to vary, one thing that nobody could deny was the way the keyboard player performed with utmost precision, and completely stood out as a shining star amongst the musicians who played throughout the night.

After a small gap in time and much prick-teasing, Chocolate Starfish finally came out of the back entrance and got on stage.

With a bold opening the band kicked the show off with their new song “Farmer Loretta” which is of course the opening song off of their latest album released at the end of last year. The band performed a large number of songs from the “Spider” album such as “Sin City Baby” and “Heavyweight” but of course the crowd went most wild for the bands better know older hits, like everybody’s favourite classic cover song of theirs “You’re So Vain”. The crowd actually loved it so much that the band even ended up just having to play it twice, to nobody’s disappointment. “Mountain” and “Accidentally Cool” were some of their other hit singles that went down a treat and definitely seemed to be highlights of the night for some of the fans there.

The show featured hilarious innuendos all throughout it, in the way of things as simple as plays on common words, or at times things more ludicrous like when at one point the bass player was made to make out as if he was performing a sexual act on the lead singer; Adam Thompson (we won’t let you know which act though for publicity reasons).

There’s one thing for sure, Mr. Chocolate will keep on putting on a zany show and rocking throughout the ages no matter what, with no hesitation to have a good time and some laughs in the process. He is a bloody powerful performer, inviting and involving, bold and beaming with a true passion for what he does. In addition to that, all members of the band had some real impressive equipment such as the group’s new guitarist in place of the mighty Zoran Romich (who passed away in 2012 and the new album is tribute to). He performed using a custom Gibson Les Paul electric guitar with very sexy pearl inlays on the fretboard, a beautiful instrument that exerted a superb tone. As the night went on, the show just seemed to get bigger and better.

Adam continued to invite those sitting at the back to come closer towards the front and be involved in the fun, he is really good at engaging with his fans in the crowd, by the end of the night, most people attending had seemed to submit to his requests, and for those last few songs it was a collected unit of people looking to the stage starry-eyed. At one point during Chocolate Starfish’ set Adam seemed to climb on to someone’s table and grabbed onto railing connected to the roof, I’m sure everyone in the crowd thought he was about to begin pole dancing, as did I. Thankfully for the kiddies in the crowd (not to mention the rest of the audience) he did not. However, he did invite a bloke on stage to assist with orchestrating the crowd thereafter and perform some gestures…

If things weren’t already getting crazy enough in addition to the already wild ride taking place there was a special guest appearance by Dave ‘Gleeso’ Gleeson which happened totally out of the blue, towards the end of their set Gleeso emerged from back stage which caused the crowd to get even more into it. Together they nailed some real bangers before Adam closed off with the rest of the bands usual suspects.

With all of the action taking place the show seemed as if it would be never ending, there was encore after encore and seemed to be no signs of ever stopping… Eventually it did. But it will not be a gig forgotten anytime soon.

A tip of the hat to Adam Thompson, singer of Chocolate Starfish for getting to the merch stall straight after playing to meet and greet fans too. They say there is no rest for the wicked, and he is one wickedly dedicated and inspiring dude.

If you missed them in Adelaide this time round, don’t miss Chocolate Starfish next time they come to our humble state!

Review by Jonathan Matthews

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