Live Review: Ball Park Music, Millions, Pluto Jones

An absolute scorcher of a day in Adelaide saw Brisbane’s finest, Ball Park Music roll up to the Governor Hindmarsh to kick off the Adelaide leg of their Trippin’ The Light Fantastic national tour.

First to play was Sydneysider Pluto Jonze aka Lachlan Nicolson and his two-piece band. Theremin in tow, the trio banged out favourites including the recently released Sucker, and a few older hits including Plastic Bag In A Hurricane and the song that started it all, Eject. The band’s eccentric stage presence was enough to warm the slowly growing crowd for Brisbane’s Millions.

The suave quartet – having recently announced a national tour of their own - had every teenage girl (and their mum) swooning over the smooth vocals of frontman Dominic Haddad. As if their dapper appearance on stage wasn’t enough, the band reached another level with a cover of a classic, Unchained Melody. Struggling in the heat and eventually bailing on their jackets “36 degrees, what’s the fuckin’ deal?”, the band powered through an incredible set of brand new tunes and some older favourites including set-ender, Nineteen.

An hour between bands saw the venue slowly fill with punters of every age, patiently anticipating the hour of incredible live music to come. Bursting onto the stage with everyone’s feel good favourite, It’s Nice To Be Alive, Ball Park Music ensured everyone in the venue was smiling ear-to-ear from the outset. Playing all the favourites including the incredibly underplayed Shithaus, and a jazzy, down-tempo rendition of the usually upbeat iFly, the guys (and girl) saw the already sweltering room heat up even more with the mass of punters shouting back lyrics and dancing in the crowd. Teasing the punters with a false start of another favourite, Fence Sitter, the band closed out their set, leaving the insatiable crowd screaming and cheering for more.

The roar when the band returned to the stage was enough to deafen the poor children in the crowd. Frontman Sam Cromack uttered out a “Holy shit, Adelaide” before being deafened again and kicking into an encore of their Like A Version track, a cover of Vampire Weekend’s Diane Young.

Filing out after an always incredible set, every sweaty punter still had their super cool 3D glasses and smiles plastered across their faces, no doubt lasting until Ball Park Music’s next trip to Adelaide.