In May 2025, Melbourne’s own Sweet Talk hit the road as the official support for rising southern rockers Red Clay Strays on their debut Australian tour. Midway through the run, Sweet Talk dropped their debut album, Switch On, a raw, heartfelt collection of stories and grit that captures the band’s signature blend of soul-drenched alt-country and rock ‘n’ roll. From late-night van mishaps to hometown highs, this tour diary captures the chaos, camaraderie, and pure joy of life on the road with one of America’s most exciting live acts.

Red Clay Strays Tour Diary 

By Dave Turner, Sweet Talk

Day 1: The Warm Up

The alarm goes off at 4:30am on a Friday morning. Rude. THIS is rock n roll. Maxi taxi door SLAMS out the front of my Dave’s and 30 minutes later the Sweet Talk touring party are rolling into the Virgin Lounge awaiting the red eye to Queensland. We saddle up at our usual spot and marvel at how much Craig can put away. Eggs and Sausages on toast, a tomato and cheese toastie, a huge bowl of muesli with fruit and yoghurt. Big engine needs a lot of fuel. 

We’re on the way to our warm up headliner booked for the Sunny Coast that evening playing with our good buddy J.B. Paterson. Landing on the GC and then en route to the venue, Nic and James picked up the tour backline and a van and the rest of us hauled ass in our preferred ride, the mighty Hyundai Staria. 

When Nic and James arrive at the venue the back door of the backline van wouldn’t open! The poor buggers had to unload the whole backline via a tiny door in the side of the van. That’s 3 guitar stacks, a bass rig, stands and an entire large drum kit. The boys were worn out when the Staria pulled up, but a quick call to RACQ and the backdoor was fixed, only the RACQ guy took off with the keys to our van! What a start. 

The show was rough and raw but we blew out some cobwebs, played a long set, and our buddy JB joined us for The Band’ ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’. 

Day Two: RCS Tour Night 1 - What a Venue 

Night one with the Red Clay Strays  in Brisbane was magical. 

It started with one of those characters you only meet on the road: Merch Folks. The super intimidating merch lady at Fortitude Music Hall, part prison officer, part grandma, made us sign all 40 copies of our debut EP upon arrival, claiming it would help shift copies. We were worried if we didn’t do as requested we would disappear into the boot of a car. She was absolutely correct and we nearly sold out of “I’d Rather Be Listening To Sweet Talk”. 

What a venue Fortitude Valley Music hall is! It’s like this modern take on an art deco venue of the early to mid 20th century, with a large mezzanine. The crowd is with you every step of the way! The response during Tane’s acapella section in “Have I Gone Fuckin’ Crazy” gave us goosebumps. 

We were taken aback by the rapturous applause we received when we took the stage. We knew what our mission was: to kick start the tour with a kick ass set and make fast friends with the Red Clay Strays by warming up the crowds for them. It was one of the shows of our lives and we won’t forget that any time soon! 

We love every stage. From Tiny front bars in Sydney, to RSLs in Queensland to mid-sized clubs in our hometown of Melbourne. But there’s something about these larger theatres that just feels like the “Sweet” spot for us. Intimate but roaring like a good fire. 

We met the whole Red Clay Strays touring party on night one and immediately hit it off. That connection would only deepen over the course of the tour. 

Day Three:  - Beach and Barnesy 

The next day was a day off on the Gold Coast and Craig, Nic, James and Dave decided to go see Jimmy Barnes at the Broadbeach Blues Festival. Barnesy tore it up as he always does, and we were super psyched to see Pokey La Farge and his amazing band opening. We bumped into our buddies in the Badloves too and Dave and Craig (who never miss the opportunity) went for a dip at Mermaid Beach, a bloody treat for weary Melbourne boys. 

Any sweet talk tour has multiple side missions too. Finding the best pie. Finding the best breakfast in each city. Good counter meals. Nachos and Steaks. The greatest side mission of all is finding the “best” sour coke bottle lollie in the land, a tradition started by Soren many moons ago. Samples are purchased, compared, and often combined to great the great mouth feel flavour combo. We need a mini youtube series about this sometime..content is king after all. 

Days Four and Five: RCS Nights 2 and 3 - SideWays Rain 

We flew to Newcastle the next morning where unprecedented torrential rain forced a venue change from an outdoors stage to a basketball stadium! It was a really fun show and it was clear to us after that show that the RCS guys were just hitting their stride. They got better every night and every night felt different. They are a great band and really relished watching them each night. 

We also formed fast friendships with the band's incredible road crew. Juan, Gianni, Robbie and Lucky became our spirit guides and helped us to no end during our super tight sound checks. Our sound engineer Stive “You Betcha” Collins was running things with aplomb from out front and the RCS crew helped us on the stage side of things. 

We played the mighty Hordern Pavillion, where Dave’s parents had a date night and saw the Stones and Roy Orbison in ‘65. We marvelled at the fact we were (probably) smoking cigarettes where Mick and Keef did some 60 years prior. 

The realities of a touring band in Australia have always been hard, but even more so in the current climate. We were hanging on by the skin of our teeth, paying for backline and accommodation mere hours before we arrived at each city as invoices came in just in time. We all felt for Nic who is not only our drummer but our tour manager also. The man worked wonders, the universe shall deliver. 

Day Six: Hometown Show 

By the time we rolled into Melbourne we considered the Red Clay Strays our good mates. We spent real  time every day getting to know the guys and their lovely wives and getting deep on the world, nerdy on instruments, and the art and craft of songwriting. We were trading merch and repping each other on stage by the time we rolled into our hometown. 

Knowing we had a hometown show and that our debut album was being released at midnight, the Red Clay Strays team surprised us with a bottle of tequila and a lovely toast by John that will remain cloaked by the NDA. A lovely gesture and a big group shot of tequila and we were ready to rock the stage the Beatles played! It was a special night with our wives, partners and parents all there to stand side of stage at one of our biggest shows. A festival hall sell out. THIS is ROCK N ROLL! 

Red Clay Strays manager Cody had organised for a song of ours to be recorded by the Red Clays videographer (and songwriter) Matt.

Days 7 and 8: Perth Side Hustle 

Another red eye and we were on our way to WA! We played a side show the night our album came out in Fremantle at Honky Tonk. 

Half of the Red Clay Strays crew and their partners came along to cheer us on and see a longer set from us. We were stoked that they took their night off to spend time with us and hang out sinking local lagers (and more tequila) with us in the green room. The froth was high! The connections just deepened as Soren, Dave and Craig each took turns to bend Drew from Red Clay Strays ear about song writing, and Nic and John did as only drummers do - talk drumming and laugh way too loud at dumb jokes. 

The final night of the tour was bittersweet. In the wildest venue we’ve seen, some kind of cyberpunk nightclub called the Metro, both bands tore it up and ended the tour with a bang! We celebrated by kicking on with the Red Clay Strays, partners and crew until the wee hours at another local Perth Honky Tonk, sinking Pabst blue Ribbon and listening to the wonkiest country covers band who were playing behind chicken wire. We loved it. 

As Drew from Red Clay Strays said when we said goodbye “We feel like we have family in Australia now.” The feeling was mutual.