Holy Holy, Towns @ Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide 5/5/2022
It might of been a cold Wednesday night but that didn’t deter a big crowd from seeing Holy Holy play in what is their biggest tour to date. It was a chance for Adelaide to celebrate the release of Holy Holy’s relatively new album Hello My Beautiful World now that the obvious barriers from preventing them for doing so are well and truly out of the way. I have to say that Holy Holy have taken their performance to an even higher level and in short they are an incredible live band with a phenomenal live show.
Hats off to Adelaide band Towns who opened proceedings after Queen P was ruled out through illness after receiving the phone call four hours earlier giving them the nod that they will be opening for Holy Holy. On paper you probably say that was an interesting choice but they did provide the provide contrast and no doubt won over a few new fans in the process. Aston and Daniel spoke about what might of been the decision to be home in trackies later asking the crowd to tag the band in social media posts to show his nanna that they were actual playing at Thebarton Theatre.
There were plenty of smiles as Towns worked their way through their short punchy set and whether that was playing their own tunes, movie theme songs or covers the crowd were engaged and really in to what they were playing. Boring was great as were the TV show theme songs Boss Of Me (Malcolm In The Middle), I’ll Be There For You (Friends) and California (The O.C.) and covers Bad Reputation (Joan Jett) and Teenage Dirtbag (Wheatus). Acknowledging that they were the support band Daniel and Ashton were appreciative that the crowd came early to watch them suggesting that the jokes were a defence mechanism. Finishing off on their own tunes I Don’t Mind and Safe To Stay requesting a long clap at the end for nan. na. The stage was well and truly warmed.
Holy Holy were incredible and the production was next level with a light show to rival the best of them. The surrounds of the iconic Thebarton Theatre seemed to compliment their show perfectly. Opening with Believe Anything and How You Been from Hello My Beautiful World lead singer Timothy Carroll seemed relieved when he said “Oh my God! We finally made it, we missed you”. Reflecting on what had been a crazy day with Queen P not able to play due to illness and was appreciative of hometown heroes Towns stepping up to fill the void. Singles Maybe You Know and Faces followed.
Timothy said they hadn’t done a show with seats for a while encouraging the crowd to “dance the best way you can”. It was back to more familiar territory with the likes of Flight, Elevator, Frida and new tunes I.C.U. and Shoreditch look like certain live set staples. There was a short teaser of Shadow after a crowd yelled out for a request. Timothy said they needed to keep reminding themselves that they were here after so many attempts to get the tour back on the road. Empire Of The Sun cover Walking On A Dream was fantastic and having Clews on backing vocals was a great addition to the live sound as was seen on The Aftergone. The main set finished on the massively popular Teach Me About Dying. The encore topped off what was already an incredible show with You Cannot Call For Love Like A Dog followed by the Triple J Like A Version Green Light originally by Lorde. True Lovers was stellar and wrapped an incredible show. We can’t wait for what comes next for Holy Holy.
Live Review By Rob Lyon