Live Review: Joyride, Heaps Good Friends, Approachable Members Of Your Local Community

Saturday was both a fun and somewhat unfortunate night at the University of Wollongong. The fun was the charming energy that Approachable Members Of Your Local Community, Heaps Good Friends and Joyride all brought with them to the stage. The unfortunate was the fact that their gig coincided with Ocean Alley and Tash Sultana’s sold-out mini-festival extravaganza happening literally metres away from the venue. This caused the show to be relocated from its usual spot inside the Uni Bar to a slightly smaller venue with a smaller crowd than what would’ve amassed had Gong concert-goers not been spread so thin.

Approachable Members Of Your Local Community suffered the brunt of the clash as they opened to just a handful of punters. On a positive note though, they had all crowd members smiling ear to ear at points with their ongoing banter and playful manner. Early arrivers were also treated to a nice cover of Little Red’s Rock It.

Heaps Good Friends were just that to the very talkative (and probably drunk) crowd members upfront. Bassist and vocalist Nick O’Connor handled it well and was able to weave their nonsense into his between-song bits with help from drummer Dan Steinert. Meanwhile, vocalist and guitarist Emma Fradd was the absolute show stealer with her spacey, hypnotic guitar solos. They brought it home to a lot of love with their two most popular tracks, Let’s Hug Longer and Olympic Sneakers.

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard or as frequently at a gig as much as I did during Joyride’s set. The guy is a natural comedian. Even when he was just talking shit between songs, he was hilarious. A lot of this could be attributed to his warm and relaxed demeanour, which lent itself well to his musical performance too.

Joyride’s show was the result of one man refusing to be pigeonholed into a singular genre and unafraid to explore the depths of his immense songwriting talent. The result saw him continue to embrace his deep, vibrant vocals and push them to the forefront of his tunes over electronic beats that were readily accessible and easily danceable.

Sharing the stage with him was Leftprojects’ Sarah Corry. They made a fierce yet fun duo, bouncing off each other with positive, friendly vibes that lifted the entire performance. Their vocals harmonised together magically, which topped off a spellbinding set. With his tour now at an end, I can only keep my fingers crossed for the announcement of a Joyride stand-up run.