Adelaide University O'Ball @Uni Cloisters, Adelaide(14/03/09)

Thu 19th Mar, 2009 in Gig Reviews

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Adelaide University’s annual O’Week has always been marked by a helluva’ party and the end – the Union funded rock concert O’Ball. Each year in March the Adelaide Uni cloisters fill with fleets of bubbling youth, all there to check out live music, relax on the lawns and pilfer cheap pints.

This year’s musical offerings were particularly exciting, with acts like Children Collide, Little Red and The Cassette Kids taking to the stage. Thanks to some fantastic efforts from O’ball’s 2009 coordinators Rebekka Rechten and Aaron From, and their volunteers, the night panned out famously. Par some hired security who were (excuse my French here) unquestionable fuckwits. More on that later.

Adelaide’s hand-picked local act, Tracer, kickstarted the evening into gear with a selection of powerhouse 70’s rock. The band have had promising press coverage in the last few weeks, and did uphold expectations with their performance. We can hope to see more of this band on our local stages.

Next up was Sydney quartet The Cassette Kids. Flouncing onto stage in a pair of rather dashing sequined tights, vocalist Kat Noorbergen was instantly the centre of attention. Performing tracks from EP We Are, their choppy, electro hooks combined with Kat’s siren howls made them an exciting group to watch. The Sydney darling was rocking out her hardest, yet despite efforts to conjure up a storm, she was left with a drizzle – literally. There was soon a spit of rain, at which her fans ran from the stage to find shelter. “Why is noone standing!” she winced. She quickly won the crowd back though – with bribery. “Dude, if I get two more people up here I’ll buy you each a Coopers!” Success ensued. Their set was topped off with a spectacular shout-out of “Adelaide, stand the fuck up! Stand the fuck up!” And there we had The Cassette Kids, signing out.

The punters had doubled by the time The John Steel Singers hit the stage, preceded by a cringe-worthy introduction from Nova 91.9’s Shane and Sarge. “You know how this band met? At Sizzler! I love Sizzler!” the radio presenter – œjoked’. Probably the closest she got to being funny all night. The John Steel Singers have always known how to put on a great set, and this night was indifferent as they spun out breezy, jocular tunes while the sun went down. Tracks like Luxembourg were a hit, and slowly drew more and more people to the barriers.

Ten minutes later: “I wish these girls would just pee and get out,” complained the girl next to me while standing in the line for the bathroom. “I’ll kill myself if I miss Children Collide”. Perhaps this was a little overzealous, but it was safe to say Children Collide did garner the most hype for the night. Luckily for my queue neighbour, she didn’t have to wait long. Just minutes before the band came on a “Security” strode into the bathroom and demanded, quote; “Piss and get out” unquote. Charming. It was around this point that ticket-holders were beginning to get a bit peeved.

After a quick crowd warm-up from MC Claire, the time had finally come for Children Collide. Striding onto stage with a gusto that could rival Jimi Hendrix, guitarist and lead singer Johnny McKay announced his arrival with nothing short of a guitar shredding solo. The rest is history. Their sounds were tight, McKay’s vocals were top-notch and their dirty, grungy rock did a stellar job in making the moshpit go crazy. It’s been a while since we’ve seen these tight-panted indie folk really rock out with a guitar solo, but McKay proved that there are still those that can hammer A strings as effortlessly as they breathe. Their show was far and away the highlight for me.

Now, let me digress here and re-touch on the “fuckwit” security guards. There were signs on the stage explaining that if you were to crowd surf, you would be kicked out. We understood this, and most of us were well behaved. There were, however, a few lads with a bit too much beer in their bellies who decided it would be a real swell idea to do it anyway. While a 7” tall behemoth of a Security guard was standing a few metres away.

The result was this: the security guards, instead of calmly waiting after the show, proceeded to push past everyone in their path to get the wrong-doers, causing even more unrest in the mosh. Three times the same bald, thick-necked bouncer nearly bowled me over during his pursuit of the alleged crowd surfer. It was when they kicked a guy out AND his girlfriend, purely by association, that we were getting pissed off. The girlfriend got her revenge though – by drunkenly running on stage with a lopsided smile of triumph on her face. “Don’t kick her out, please,” McKay sighed after the Bald Brigade set off to chase her.

Hit 10pm, Melbourne indie-pop sweethearts Little Red rolled onto the stage for the final set of the night. Festooned in hats, Hawaiian leis and Raybans, their cavorting guitar licks and upbeat vocal duets were the perfect way to end the evening. After recovering from the headbangs during Children Collide’s set, the punters were now ready to wind down and and swagger to Little Red’s funky tracks. Highlights included the ever-so-catchy bass lines of It’s Alright and “I feel like I’m in love with yooou, it’s truuuue,” Witchdoctor. After being treated with a hearty applause, the lads left the stage, the crowds set off to Electric Light for the afterparty and the beer supplies exhausted. O’Ball 2009 had officially come to a close.

Or so we thought, enter Ridiculous Security Scenario II. Who would have thought walking out of a University would be so hard. They’d not only stationed a guard at every exit in the University to stop punters walking through them, leaving North Terrace the only outlet, but refused to let anyone back into the venue to use the bathroom. When we inquired as to why, we were simply met with a rather rude insinuation involving bushes. Hmf.

Overall, excusing the bouncers, a great evening and a fantastic effort on behalf of everyone involved in O’Ball 2009. Until next year!

CHECK OUT ALL THE PHOTOS HERE