Lime Cordiale & Ball Park Music put Perth on a pedestal to kick off Oz tour – HBF Stadium (3.10.24)
Along with surprise spring showers, Lime Cordiale landed in Perth for the first time in five years to be greeted by a packed stadium. It was a far cry from the modest Astor theater they played in that half decade ago and the cheering crowd and impressive supporting acts were great big shining symbols of that.
The night started loud with Adelaide alt-pop darling Aleksiah belting out her moody anthem ‘Getting Older’. For the early punters, her spot as opening act was a nice surprise– another Aussie indie to know and love– but it wasn’t until Ball Park Music showed up that the people packed in.
For most of the audience, and maybe most of Perth, Ball Park was just as popular as Lime Cordiale itself and every song had their chorus echo through the stadium with the thunder of four thousand voices. Ball Park weren’t promoting a new album– though they’ve been teasing something on their Instagram– so they played a couple off their latest, Weirder & Weirder, along with the hits. It’s ‘Nice to Be Alive’ might be their most popular, but ‘She Only Loves Me When I’m There’ was the highlight of their set and they knew it; They dragged out the drop until the tension was taught as piano wire, then blasted the room with that iconic crunchy baseline– it was so explosive that bassist Dean Hanson had a string snap and slice his face (slightly).
And Ball Park Music would be a hard act to follow on any night, but just the shadows of the Leimbach brothers got the crowd cheering and shouting– they’ve been gilded as made men since their last visit. They opened with their first track off Enough Of The Sweet Talk, ‘Pedestal’, and the retro riffs hit the crowd like a ray of sun. It might’ve been raining outside, but inside it was a summer night. They followed up with a mix of the new album and of their best– ‘Imposter Syndrome’, ‘Facts of Life’, and ‘Naturally’– then the brothers stopped for a punch up. They donned boxing robes and put on a show, with Oli taking a dive. It’s this charming, carefree spirit that had the crowd in the palm of their hands the whole night– Louis managed to get half the stadium to scream with just a raise of the eyebrows.
The rest of the highlights off their album made for a great night– ‘Love is Off the Table’ is totally underrated– and all the best of Enough Of the Sweet Talk sound better live. As they go on to Adelaide, the east coast, and across to New Zealand, it’s shaping up to be their best tour (and their biggest) – it’s just a shame Idris Elba wasn’t on hand to sing Apple Crumble with them.
About the Author
Branden Zavaleta Based in Perth, Branden writes on the arts for a handful of Australian outlets. He's also a street & creative portrait photographer, who's work can be found @brandenzp on Instagram.
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