Ocean Alley, Le Shiv, Dulcie @ Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide 25/2/2022
Top shelf! After a few reschedules Ocean Alley finally hit the iconic Thebarton Theatre for the first of two sold out shows. In short this band is incredible and for such a relatively young band the sound is tight. I’ve been a bit slow to catch on but if you haven’t seen these guys play well then you should. With a set list loaded full of class they took their fans to all corner of their back catalogue.
It is always great to discover some new bands and I was quite fortunate to catch Western Australian indie pop band Dulcie and Sydney indie/ alt/ rock/ psych-pop band Le Shiv. Hot damn! Adelaide was well and truly spoilt with this music offering making for one of the best bills I have seen in a while. I’ll be looking forward to hearing more music this year from Dulcie if the calibre of current single Tell Ur Friends is anything to go by. Mark my words Le Shiv are going to be massive and we’ll be hearing a lot more from these guys when their debut album comes out this year. No doubt we’ll be seeing Le Shiv play venues such as The Thebbie if their potential upward trajectory is anything to go by.
Ocean Alley walked out to the anthemic Dire Straits tune Money For Nothing and the reaction from the crowd was more like a heroes home coming… and deservedly so. Right from first drop the crowd went nuts as they opened with Tombstone. Front man Baden Donegal said that they had been waiting a long time to be here and genuinely seemed excited to be in front of a full house. The band let the music do all the talking and when you’re this good the set doesn’t need to be filled with pointless banter. So many great songs including the likes of Way Down, Yellow Mellow and Infinity.
The set moved along effortlessly and time literally whizzed by without really even noticing it. Lonely Diamond and The Comedown were popular but for me one of the highlights was the Pink Floyd covers Breathe (In The Air) which morphed in to Comfortably Numb and Money. The highlights reel would also include Stained Glass, Overgrown, Hot Chicken and Rage.
The crowd were that in to it that the instinct was to get up and dance. The sooner this rule goes the better it will be for everyone to be able to get on with enjoying live music as it should be. The vibe in the room was fever pitch by the time Confidence rolled round towards the end of the set. During the encore the crowd were up and out of their seats in unison enjoying Baby Come Back and Knees to finish the show. Fantastic night! Three awesome bands! Well played Thebarton Theatre.
Live Review By Rob Lyon