Ball Park Music, Loon Lake @ The Bended Elbow, Geelong (22/11/2012)
Photo by Gwendolyn Lee
Although Ball Park Music’s gig at The Bended Hotel hadn’t sold out prior to the show, the bustling queue outside was promise enough for the night’s success, and with a supporting act like Loon Lake the show was bound to draw a crowd.
After waiting what seemed like a lifetime to get in it seemed there was yet another queue. However, this one was solely for Loon Lake and to get the best spot imaginable. With the vast number of people all fighting for a good spot to see Loon Lake you can’t deny that they are now at a point in their career where they should be a headline act. Loon Lake’s talent and popularity are rapidly sending them to bigger and better places and one of those places just so happens to be Falls Festival later this year.
Since hearing Bad To Me played on Triple J I’ve been holding out to see how Loon Lake perform live and with the performance Loon Lake delivered they easily look like they’ve been doing it for years. As soon as Cherry Lips and Bad To Me kicked off the crowd went into a dancing frenzy and unsurprisingly these tracks were standouts. In The Summer was easily the highlight of the set, with the song’s catchy and simple lyrics the audience had no reason not to sing along and when it came to “In the summer oooh I love her / Like no other she’s my mother” the audience were singing at such a decibel that everything else became obsolete.
After Loon Lake’s performance the crowd was hyped for Ball Park Music and their heavily pop infused tracks. With their new album, Museum, playing on high rotation on Triple J the crowd have all been well acquainted with their new songs and hopes for their new songs to be played could be overheard in conversations at the bar.
The crowd waited in eager anticipation as each minute brought Ball Park Music’s performance closer and closer. As soon as the lights switched off the crowd erupted in claps and roars as the silhouette of the six-piece band casually made their way on stage. After lubricating his throat with a sip of red wine the lead singer, Sam Cromack, was ready to go and quickly opened the set with their new hit Fence Sitter.
As he wriggled his hips and jumped around the stage, in an energetic Mick Jagger style, Sam quickly worked his way through a lengthy 16-song set. With some of their older hits like All I Want Is You, Literally Baby and Ifly working their way in, the crowd was kept singing the whole way through.
With backing vocals from Jennifer Boyce the vocals from the band are normally something to behold, however, at times the guitar and drums were so loud that all the vocals were drowned out and it merely looked like they were miming on stage. But thanks to the die-hard fans in the crowd everyone else could get a sense of the lyrics.
Considering the handful of songs that Ball Park Music has to offer, a cover was the last thing I’d expected. But interestingly enough it was the highlight of the night. Taking us back in time the band sung the popular Four Seasons hit, December 1963, or you may remember it by the lyrics “Oh, what a night”. With Sam’s quirky dancing and the bands pop undertones they had the whole audience believing we’d travelled back to the 60s.
Aside from the minor imbalance of instrumental and vocals the gig delivered not only one quality act but two, with both bands deserving of a headline title. Ball Park Music has clearly proved that they haven’t lost their place in the indie-pop scene and their newfound maturity can be seen in their live performance.
Amanda Sherring
After waiting what seemed like a lifetime to get in it seemed there was yet another queue. However, this one was solely for Loon Lake and to get the best spot imaginable. With the vast number of people all fighting for a good spot to see Loon Lake you can’t deny that they are now at a point in their career where they should be a headline act. Loon Lake’s talent and popularity are rapidly sending them to bigger and better places and one of those places just so happens to be Falls Festival later this year.
Since hearing Bad To Me played on Triple J I’ve been holding out to see how Loon Lake perform live and with the performance Loon Lake delivered they easily look like they’ve been doing it for years. As soon as Cherry Lips and Bad To Me kicked off the crowd went into a dancing frenzy and unsurprisingly these tracks were standouts. In The Summer was easily the highlight of the set, with the song’s catchy and simple lyrics the audience had no reason not to sing along and when it came to “In the summer oooh I love her / Like no other she’s my mother” the audience were singing at such a decibel that everything else became obsolete.
After Loon Lake’s performance the crowd was hyped for Ball Park Music and their heavily pop infused tracks. With their new album, Museum, playing on high rotation on Triple J the crowd have all been well acquainted with their new songs and hopes for their new songs to be played could be overheard in conversations at the bar.
The crowd waited in eager anticipation as each minute brought Ball Park Music’s performance closer and closer. As soon as the lights switched off the crowd erupted in claps and roars as the silhouette of the six-piece band casually made their way on stage. After lubricating his throat with a sip of red wine the lead singer, Sam Cromack, was ready to go and quickly opened the set with their new hit Fence Sitter.
As he wriggled his hips and jumped around the stage, in an energetic Mick Jagger style, Sam quickly worked his way through a lengthy 16-song set. With some of their older hits like All I Want Is You, Literally Baby and Ifly working their way in, the crowd was kept singing the whole way through.
With backing vocals from Jennifer Boyce the vocals from the band are normally something to behold, however, at times the guitar and drums were so loud that all the vocals were drowned out and it merely looked like they were miming on stage. But thanks to the die-hard fans in the crowd everyone else could get a sense of the lyrics.
Considering the handful of songs that Ball Park Music has to offer, a cover was the last thing I’d expected. But interestingly enough it was the highlight of the night. Taking us back in time the band sung the popular Four Seasons hit, December 1963, or you may remember it by the lyrics “Oh, what a night”. With Sam’s quirky dancing and the bands pop undertones they had the whole audience believing we’d travelled back to the 60s.
Aside from the minor imbalance of instrumental and vocals the gig delivered not only one quality act but two, with both bands deserving of a headline title. Ball Park Music has clearly proved that they haven’t lost their place in the indie-pop scene and their newfound maturity can be seen in their live performance.
Amanda Sherring