Nicotine Dolls w/ Emily Justin @ HI-FI Indy
General admission, limited seating
Nicotine Dolls make the kind of music you can’t hide from. The storytelling is front-and center, beckoning your attention like a dusty old novel you can’t put down until the last page. The vocals are gritty and honest, holding nothing back in fits of joy, regret, and sadness similar to a phone call from one of your best friends at 3am. The instrumentation is equally punchy and nuanced, grafting rafter-reaching hooks on top of rich soundscapes. The moment the Nicotine Dolls - led by Sam Cieri [vocals], John Merritt [bass], and Abel Tabares [drums] - hit that first note, the air shifts. A wave of collection emotion that doesn’t ask permission just hits you.
Cieri started Nicotine Dolls in New York after a winding path that stretched from leaving high school to make music, to South Florida bars, to Vegas gigs, to eventually landing a Broadway tour. The stage paid the bills, but songwriting was always the compass. As he wrote and shaped the sound, the band solidified around a shared vision rooted in honesty, tension, longing, and the courage to say the quiet things out loud.
Since forming in 2019, Nicotine Dolls have built a fiercely loyal fanbase through relentless creativity and intimate connection. Their breakout single “What Makes You Sad” has earned nearly 20 million Spotify streams, and their cover of Tina Turner’s “The Best” is approaching 30 million streams. Collectively, their catalog has more than 80 million streams and they’ve developed a massive digital community with more than 1.8 million followers on TikTok and over a million on Instagram.
Nicotine Dolls have released a series of self-penned and produced singles and EPs, along with their 2025 debut LP “an Attempt at Romantic.” The band have been hailed by SPIN for their “vulnerability and determination,” calling Cieri a “charismatic, gravelly throated powerhouse with the rasp of Bruce Springsteen and the emotion of Lewis Capaldi.”
“This album has been my own internal attempt to be OK with wanting to love, and be loved in return,” he explains. “I wanted to be dumb and nervous and brave and scared and everything that you drown in when someone looks at you in that way that derails the whole plan you had for your life. I live alone with my dog and I’m not saying I don’t adore that life, because I do (my dog is my sweet big boy Indiana). But I miss laughing with someone in the kitchen or falling asleep watching trashy TV. I pride myself on my independence, but I think I made this record as a way to admit to myself that having someone there…would be nice.”
Nicotine Dolls wrapped another hugely successful North American headlining tour in 2025 and have no plans of slowing down with another album in the works for 2026.