Live Review: Ouija Beats

Luna Park stepped up its Halloween game again this year, rolling with its spooky side-show performers and even spookier drink prices, and while everybody still looks around occasionally to check if they’re Halloweening properly, it’s safe to say that it’s well and truly a ‘thing’ now.

It was a symbiotic relationship in every sense of the word on Friday night. Luna Park has always needed a little something extra to make it more than just the only place to go to since Wonderland died and Ouija Beats, while excellent, probably would have suffered in a stand-alone environment.

Olympic Ayres were the highlights of the earlier sets, which featured impassioned performances from Moonbase Commander, Astral DJs and Twin Caverns, with the pulsing three-piece building a centre-piece around the fantastic single, Control. Contrary to the lyrical content, they were well and truly in control. Confident dance moves, confident banter, confident confidence.

Perhaps it’s this reviewer’s penchant for gigs in which the band is usually going all ‘woe is me’ on everyone, but the shut-your-mouth confidence on the night was addictive. Some of the bands may have even been rubbish for all anyone knows. It’s hard to do anything but lap it up when they’re bopping around like they know the meaning of life and can’t wait to tell you. Willow Beats knew this, when Narayana Johnson and Kalyani Mumtaz capped off a hypnotic, woodsy set – including a stand-out new track featuring Allday – by joining the pumped, appropriately dressed crowd.

Northeast Party House were true to form, as they treated the main stage to a festival-like set, dropping their full-band thrashers, interspersed with smoke alarm-like beeps, giving everybody what they expected while perhaps lacking a bit of immersion. Basenji was a bright spot in the night, sample mania as per usual, but really bringing the feels as he rolled out a high-energy set with the crowd now in full swing. Panama were a nice change of pace, with some smooth, dark-room disco punctuated by a rousing rendition of Always, perhaps the best individual track on the night.

Cosmo’s Midnight were back doing the whole confidence thing that had been put on the back burner for the last few sets, pumping out a relentless remix fest, including a sneaky Panama track, to cap off something for everyone kind of night.