Sticky Fingers in New York

About Sticky Fingers

Sticky Fingers are an Australian indie rock band that emerged from Brisbane in the early 2010s with a sound that sits somewhere between garage rock grit and indie pop hooks. They built a cult following through relentless touring and a string of tightly-wound songs that blend fuzzy guitars with almost casual vocal delivery. Australia became their breakthrough track, landing them international attention and becoming the song everyone knows them for—it's got the kind of addictive quality that makes it both a radio staple and the obvious setlist closer. Their albums tend toward rawer production that emphasizes the band's chemistry rather than polish. What keeps them interesting is their refusal to get bigger than the songs themselves. Gold and Rum Pum Pum show their range between slowburn tension and more straightforward rock momentum. They've never quite become a household name outside their core audience, which honestly suits them fine. Their appeal is to people who prefer their rock music a little rough around the edges.

Sticky Fingers shows feel less polished and more lived-in than you'd expect. The crowd is usually singing along harder than the band is, especially on Australia. They're the kind of act where people drift in and out but everyone knows when to lock in. Sets can feel a bit loose but rarely boring.

Known for Australia, Rum Pum Pum, Gold, Statues, These Miles

Sticky Fingers + New York

Sticky Fingers has a solid history with New York's smaller venues. Their March 2019 set at Irving Plaza showed a band comfortable stretching into deeper material—they cycled through "Velvet Skies" and "Bootleg Rascal" alongside the obvious crowd-pleasers, landing on "How to Fly" as a closing statement. The Australian psych-rockers treated the Irving Plaza crowd to nineteen songs that felt like a journey through their catalog, hitting the kind of sweet spots that keep people coming back.

Sticky Fingers in New York News

• The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers, Exile, Rock Britannica · Jan 31, 2026
• Parent of New York City-based chicken finger concept Sticky’s files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Nation’s Restaurant News · Apr 26, 2024
• For The Record: Inside The Wild Ride Behind The Rolling Stones' 'Sticky Fingers' At 50 Grammy · Jan 31, 2022
• Art of the Rolling Stones: Behind That Zipper and That Tongue (Published 2015) The New York Times · Jun 7, 2015
• Rolling Stones Torch ‘Sticky Fingers’ at Small Surprise L.A. Show Rolling Stone · May 21, 2015

Live Music in New York

New York's rock underground has always been about bands that don't fit neatly anywhere else. From the no-wave weirdness of the late 70s to the current crop of psych and garage revivalists, the city tends to reward artists with actual ideas and a refusal to be precious about their sound. Sticky Fingers' fuzzy guitars and hypnotic rhythms fit that lineage pretty naturally—raw energy, unpretentious, more interested in feel than polish.

New York road trip to see Sticky Fingers?

Stay in the Upper West Side near Central Park—quieter than Midtown, better restaurants, and close enough to everywhere that matters. Dinner at Balthazar in SoHo if you want classic New York energy, or Gramercy Tavern if you prefer something less scene-y. Spend your afternoon at the Met or catching live music at Blue Note or The Basement—both venues where you'll see the players who influenced Mars's sound. Walk through Washington Square Park, grab a coffee, remember why New York mattered to music in the first place.