Live Review: Ball Park Music - The Hi-Fi, Brisbane (11.05.12)

Since the release of their debut "Happiness and the Surrounding Suburbs" Ball Park Music have become bigger than internet kittens and deservedly so! Their 180º Tour has seen them playing the largest venues of their career and tonight they'd packed the Hi-Fi for the 20th show of the tour.

Opening with "Misirlou" and wearing Pulp Fiction-esque black and white suits, the song melded into album opener "Literally Baby". The crowd seemed to be unable to reign in their enthusiasm as spontaneous ‘pyjama’ dancing (the daggiest of all the dances) rippled through their limbs.

"Shithaus" was followed by a box-fresh track, and Cormack gave us his best impression of Jarvis Crocker, sliding down the mic stand and adjusting his frames. The touring has certainly tightened up their sound and the cameras were rolling side of stage to catch the crowd’s reaction to "Rich People Are Stupid".

There was a slight dip in tempo and excitement during album tracks "Glass Jar" and "Alligator", however with only one LP’s worth of material this was bound to be the case. "All I Want is You" buoyed the audience and gave the band enough encouragement to play another new song that had a promising hook.

Their brilliant cover of The Flaming Lips "Do You Realise" was next, followed by "Sad Rude Future Dude" which they broke down to introduce the band and have another chat with the audience.

I’ve always considered the last track on the debut to have a fun 'Beatles-y' (yeah that’s a word) feel to it, with its tempo changes and mentions of submarines, however this was even more obvious when played live. It would have been a perfect note to end on but BPM still had so much more to give. "iFly" and "Nice To Be Alive" were next and they involved more crowd participation and streamer cannons than a Hillsong gathering.

While we could have walked out of the venue at that moment completely elated and fulfilled, the band still made the effort to do an encore with "Culture Vultures in the Year 2000". Members of supports Yes You and Cub Scouts joined Ball Park Music on stage for the last song of the night, Kinks classic ‘All Day and All of The Night’.

I can’t imagine how anyone could watch a Ball Park Music gig and not leave smiling, and judging from the people spilling out onto Boundary Street, it just might not be humanly possible.