Live Review: Ball Park Music

Ball Park Music returned to Sydney on Friday night for what would be their first gig in the harbour city since the pandemic began. Having only been able to play shows in their hometown in 2021, fans turned up in droves to see the band not only play music from their new album Weirder & Weirder, but also from their 2020 self-titled record which hadn’t been performed outside of Brisbane until this very tour.

This show, taking place at the Hordern Pavilion, had added meaning on top of all of that. It transpired to be their 500th - an incredible achievement for Sam Cromack, Jen Boyce, Paul Furness and brothers Dean and Daniel Hanson. Perhaps one that the band wouldn’t have even contemplated when they met while studying music at the Queensland University of Technology in the late 2000s. But seven albums later, here we were, show number 500.

After engaging sets from a huge lineup of supports - RAT!Hammock, Teenage Joans and King Stingray, the crowd quietened as the house lights went down. Chatter turned to what their first tune in Sydney since 2018 might be. What we didn’t expect was for the stage to remain empty while the John Williamsson version of Aussie classic ‘Home Among The Gum Trees’ played from the speakers. It was, rightly, belted out by all in attendance. A good mood had been set.

Then started the first of three very clear acts. Ball Park kicked things off with a brand new one  ‘Manny’ - a great way to keep up the momentum of crowd participation. Speaking to themusic recently, Cromack flagged that their forthcoming tour sets would be largely stacked towards music from their two most recent albums, and yet it was in only the second song of the night we were treated to ‘The End Times’ from their 2018 album Good Mood. 

Next up they dove further back into the catalogue with yet another huge crowd singalong ‘Everything Is Shit Except My Friendship With You’ off 2014’s Puddinghead - their first album to ever be nominated for an ARIA. The early songs set a standard for one of the most spectacular light shows of any Ball Park Music tour in their history, with the stage resembling a technicolour dream and songs being transitioned through strobes and synths, as if we were travelling on a spaceship through the band’s history.

The gig was being recorded for triple j’s Live At The Wireless, and appropriately, Sam Cromack was on top form, playing off the energy in the crowd with jokes and genuinely funny non-sequiturs. ‘I’m no scientist, but 500 shows is a lot,’ he laughed. After a breakneck start, the mood began to mellow. Jen Boyce and Dean Hansen’s vocal harmonies featured louder in the mix than I remember at previous gigs, and both sounded fantastic through recent release ‘Stars In My Eyes’, as well as Ball Park’s love song to their fans ‘Exactly How You Are’. These were followed by their new record’s title track ‘Weirder & Weirder’ - a tune that like many before it, really came into its own in a live setting. You could almost see the crowd having a collective ‘ohhhh I get it now’ moment when this one rang out through the rafters of the Hordern.

Then, a perfectly unexpected tender moment from Dean Hansen, as the rest of the band departed the stage and he whipped out an acoustic guitar. ‘I’m terrified’... he told us, before belting out ‘The Perfect Life Does Not Exist’ completely on his own. He needn’t have been, as the crowd matched his energy, made him feel comfortable, and left many looking around exclaiming they hadn’t released just how good a singer Dean really was. 

It was now time for the extended, emotive ballads. They began with an extended version of the epic ‘Pariah’ from 2016’s Every Night The Same Dream. It was a mini-feature for the wickedly talented Paul Furness on keys, and also saw the entire band leave the stage once more sans Daniel Hansen on drums - who treated us to a two-minute drum solo exhibition. And as if we weren’t left emotionally exhausted from that, Ball Park Music followed it with their highest ever placing song on triple j’s Hottest 100 - ‘Cherub’, which placed at #4 in the 2020 countdown. The tune is still as beloved as it was then.

The song they chose to transition from act two to act three was, of course, ‘It’s Nice To Be Alive’. Cromack took the opportunity to thank the crowd for inspiring Ball Park Music “to get up here and not be shit”. Things began to speed up, and almost in a blur we heard ‘Trippin’ The Light Fantastic’, ‘I Feel Nothing’ and ‘She Only Loves Me When I’m There’. It was reaching fever pitch when the band played a track they’ve closed with in the past - ‘Fence Sitter’, but that was not to be the end.

Through a mate with a personal connection to the band, I had been told to expect something special when the band began to play 2020’s ‘Head Like A Sieve’, but I was not prepared for King Stingray to emerge mid-way through the song and take things up a notch. As it turns out, ‘Head Like A Sieve’ is one of many songs made better with a didgeridoo. 

It was going to be hard to top such a huge performance in the encore, but Ball Park Music indulged the chanting fans and returned to perform a song released in 2011, but one with no less relevance today. ‘Sad Rude Future Dude’ was belted out by those in attendance, who all departed the venue wondering how they got so lucky to be able to see the band’s 500th show.