Ball Park Music / Archie
UC
What’s the difference between being very good or being great? Sometimes it comes down to stage banter.
Local Canberra band Archie (Colette works with the lead singer Grant’s mum – how very Canberra) had the confidence, after a very strong start, to stop their set and tell a story about trousers. It was the first time on the main stage at UC and they went to buy some special trousers for the occasion. The lead guitarist thought his online order wasn’t going to turn up, so went to the shop and bought some, but, of course, his order did turn up on time and it was all good. It was all under control and everything worked out well. It took a lot of confidence and stage presence from the band to deliver this story. It was a perfect metaphor for their set of groovy dance indie rock. I was so much of a fan I literally bought a t shirt after the gig!
Ball Park Music have such a strong back catalogue of 2010’s indie hits that they could never play all of them. It was a pretty great set from start to finish, they had light and shade, singalongs in pretty much every song and the room was jumping. Their stage banter, however, does leave a lot to be desired. I can handle one “Hey Canberra are you having a good time” but by the 8th time, it was getting a bit wearing. Also, I’m happy to be called a “mother*cker” every now and then but, again, does it need to be repeated all night? Should a band have scripted stage patter? There’s certainly a strong case for that in Ball Park Music. A bit better stage banter would have taken them from from being very good to being great.
