Ball Park Music, The Buoys, Sunsick Daisy @ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide 19/8/2023
There were three killer acts at the Hindley Street Music Hall tonight. First up was local legends Sunsick Daisy who I saw in October last year at the Lion Arts factory and early this year at Carclew and who I have been looking forward to seeing again. Their dream pop stylings sounded awesome tonight. The crowd was really getting into them and it was great to see that a lot of the crowd already knew them.
Sarah’s vocals are wonderful and Kane’s guitar riff on Underwater was so catchy. They have two songs on Spotify so far, the excellent Someone Like You from last year and I’m Coming Home which was just released and described as a cheesy love song. They were very tight for such a new band and the harmonies were spot on. I look forward to seeing what they produce in the future.
Next up was The Buoys from New South Wales. They are an all-female quartet who play banger after banger. They first interested me then I saw them supporting the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets last year. I was then lucky enough to see them support Wet Leg in Sydney and felt that the Buoys were the best support act I had seen that year. I would describe them as an incredibly fun and tight rock pop punk band with absolutely beautiful harmonies.
They seem to really love playing together and were excited by the love from the Adelaide crowd. Zoe on vocals and guitar is the only original member since they formed in 2016 and the rest have been there since 2019. Hilary Geddes is so good on lead guitar. Her riffs were spectacular and I was not surprised that she is a classically trained guitarist. Every song in tonight’s set was killer. The first three were Drive Me Home, Best Friend and my favourite song of last year Red Flags and they sounded incredible. The new songs were BDSM and Settle Pettle and were both impressive. The band advised that they would be coming back soon after they finish their new album and I can not wait.
Ball Park Music hit the stage at 10pm to rapturous applause. They are such a well-loved band in Australia and definitely deserve it. Much like The Buoys who played prior to them every song in 100-minute set was fantastic and every song had the crowd singing along. Every time I see them live they seem to play better than before and are more cohesive. It was so good seeing them in a venue as opposed to seeing them at a festival which they have been playing in Adelaide for the last five years.
The acoustics at the Hindley Street Music Hall were immaculate tonight. The theme for tonight was that it was a national Tour but Adelaide was the only date! There is no weak link in the band and their musicality was superb. Some of the huge hits played tonight were Stars in My Eyes, Surrender. It’s Nice to be Alive, Fence Sitter and Coming Down. The last song of the main set, Alligator really rocked out with an extended outro.
The first song of the encore was a solo new song from singer Sam and was wonderful. The last song of the night was Struggle Street with a brilliant bass riff from Jen Boyce. I would never have believed that I would see Ball Park Music one day and they would not play Literally Baby, Sad Rude Future Dude or All I Want is You and I would still love the concert so much. Such is the strength of their music catalogue. Here is hoping they play at least one of those songs when I see them again later in the year at the Handpicked Festival.
Live Review By Richard De Pizzol