Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Saturday July 6, 2013 :
Cranking ABBA’s ‘Thank You For The Music’ the loudest it’s ever been played as their walk-on music, it was clear that we were in for quite a show. Ball Park Music came onto the stage at the Enmore to a very excitable all-ages crowd and jumped straight into ‘Bad Taste Blues (Part II)’ and a shout-out of “Sydney, how you doin’?”
The energy was up for both the band and the crowd right from the start, and it simply didn’t drop for the entirety of the gig. Frontman Sam Cromack held the audience in the palm of his hand with his polite banter and laidback monotone vocals, and seemed unable to put a foot wrong for the entire night. The whole band were having a brilliant time, pounding out hits ‘Surrender’, ‘iFly’ and their Doo-Wop rip-off ‘The Glass Jar’, in which keyboardist Paul Furness broke out the trombone, because why not.
As the band started the intro to their sixth song of the night, Cromack invited a fan onto the stage, getting the audience to give him a cheer as the band had never even met him before. The very-nervous Nick started with “Thank you Ball Park music for letting me come out and embarrass myself at your concert” before the audience was treated to an on-stage proposal, acceptance, and group hug with the entire band. As Cromack dedicated the band’s song ‘All I Want Is You’ to the newly-engaged couple, the excitement of the crowd was palpable, my friend Shelley putting in her two cents with “well that was adorable.” Even though I’m sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen in every Ball Park Music gig, it summed up the good-feeling that MUST be present at the majority of their gigs, with their style of music simply demanding fun and free-wheeling from the listener.
The crowd were equally impressed throughout the night with the slightly slower numbers such as ‘Coming Down’ and ‘Birds Down Basements’, and Cromack continued to be the nicest guy in the place, encouraging the audience to sing along, giving a shout-out to each member of his band, dedicating songs to different parts of the audience like he was handing out candy, and even thanking his crew and the sound guys at the Enmore between songs. Furness, the band’s keyboardist, was equally adorable, charming the crowd with his over-enthusiastic clapping and piano-nerd hairdo. With a shout of “do you want one more Sydney?”, the band launched into single ‘Fencesitter’ to finish off their set, with Sam heading down into the pit with the audience before heading backstage. The band then proceeded to play each other off the stage, their guitarist Dean Hanson unplugging and giving a salute, followed by bassist Jennifer Boyce skipping off after him, their drummer Daniel Hanson giving one last drum roll before waving and heading off, leaving keyboardist Furness to wrap up the last song with the crowd clapping along in time.
Even after such a decided exit, the band came back onstage to the audience’s cheering and stamping, taking pictures of each other looking out across the audience, before launching into their first encore, ‘Alligator’. Before their second encore song and last song of the night, Cromack left the crowd with another little nugget, promising autographs at the merch table after the show and finishing with, “I hope your parents raise you well and let you listen to lots of Beatles,” before heading into ‘Eight Days A Week’ and leaving everyone on a high.
I went in slightly sceptical of the band, but left feeling like it would be impossible to go to one of their gigs and not have a great time. Definitely worth checking out if you’re looking for a fun band to see for a great night out.
Reviewer: Louisa Bulley
Photographer: Glen Pearson
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