The Every Night The Same Dream tour hit the chilly streets of Perth on Saturday night as Ball Park Music took to the sold out stage of Capitol, bringing with them fellow Brisbanites The Creases and homegrown locals Gunns. Touting plenty of material from their fourth album, there were plenty of former classics thrown into the set, making for a diverse playlist across their ever evolving sound, and their performance as tight as ever.
With enough punters already through the door to catch early birds Gunns, it was pretty clear this would be a show with copious guitar hooks, working through a set of loud, grungy yet unaggressive indie rock that had the steadily filling room contentedly bopping along.
Being familiar with a lot of their tracks and getting the good word from Cub Sport, I was keen to check out The Creases live, and though there seemed to be some sound issues to start with, the set quickly took off. Opening with “Static Lines” from their Gradient EP, the infectious pop rock nostalgia of the track had the whole venue sharing the vibes.
Revealing that last month they had been recording their debut album they played the track “Sometimes” from it, before moving onto “Everybody Knows” and “Impact”. “Do You Know Why” featured some great shared vocals from guitarist Aimon Clark while “Point” had frontman Joe Agius tossing aside his bomber jacket and guitar to hip thrust his way across stage.
Winning a bet when Ball Park Music politely hit the stage and tore straight into “Literally Baby”, the crowd erupted into varying degrees of dancing. Some couples stuck to the statuesque hug sway, while others went into melt down flail mode. Following up with the first track of their touring album “Feelings”, it was a smooth juxtaposition from their sunshine pop smash chaos sounds to the more structured indie rock of Every Night The Same Dream while still catching tones of the psychedelia that evolved from Puddinghead.
“Everything Is Shit Except My Friendship With You” predictably had people arm in arm with their significantly singing other, lungs practically exploding with the chorus. “Sad Rude Future Dude” kept up the pace with a couple of guys barging in on shoulders to add that extra dose of contagious energy, before bringing it back to a medium with “Surrender”.
Frontman Sam Cromack held the solo lighting for “Coming Down”, the crowd continuing to jostle in every direction. The communal atmosphere took a slight turn for the worse as a couple of punters gig etiquette ideologies clashed, a few blokes over enthusiastic moshing as “It’s Nice To Be Alive” broke out caught some pointed faces from those around them, while a group of ladies in the middle of the room elbowed and bumped away personal space infringers with a misguided vengeance. Small PSA: A gig is a public space, not your personal show and there will be crowds, particularly for a sold out tour. Make the best of it. Also don’t wear sunglasses on your head in a club at night.
“Whipping Boy” and “Fence Sitter” continued the rollercoaster between new releases and old favourites, before “Trippin the Light Fantastic” converted the venue back to a full blown dance party. “She Only Loves Me When I’m There” gave a manic close for the main set prior to the often compulsory encore returning with the much awaited “Nihilist Party Anthem”, audible cries of “Yes!” and “My favourite!” echoed around the floor. “Cocaine Lion” finished off the night leaving everyone on a total high as the band officially bowed out, bassist and vocalist Jen Boyce garnering the largest cheer of course, the lights bringing people back to reality as half the venue rushed to the merch desk for a trophy of memorabilia.
It was great to see everyone glowing with that dumfounded post-gig expression on Saturday night, milling around the venue trying to make the experience last as long as possible. Ball Park Music have yet to do anything less than overthrow preconceptions and exceed all expectations with every show. Still gaining new fans with each album and successfully pushing their sound each time, it’s clear the group have what it takes to keep delivering.
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