Almost ten years on from playing their first gig mid-week at The Zoo (in Brisbane), Ball Park Music will be rocking their home town at Brisbane Festival's opening night extravaganza.
For frontman Sam Cromack, that's as good a reason as any to treat it like a party. “That gig is going to be almost ten years to the day since our first gig as well, so we're really treating it as a ten-year anniversary gig,” Sam says.
“Our very first gig we played at The Zoo. It was a classic mid-week night they have at The Zoo with a bunch of no-name bands all taking to the stage. I can't believe that was ten years ago, it's f...ed to say to be honest.”
The opening night of Brisbane Festival presents Ball Park Music and San Cisco as part of their co-headline national tour from September through to October. “There's something extra special about it,” Sam says of the tour with San Cisco.
“It feels like an actual milestone and I guess what I'm trying to say is that it feels like a marker in time. [The tour] is trying to emphasise that we're two acts that have been around for quite some time.
“It feels really cool to do something together and it's a bit of a roadmap I guess, because all the tours can really blur into one but this one feels different and I'm curious as to how it's going to feel going on the road both as headliners.”
The tour also forms part of the performance cycle for their latest album 'Good Mood', which was released back in February.
As their fifth full-length studio album, Sam says 'Good Mood' may be their best record yet. “When you release a new record you really do feel hugely sensitive to how the new songs are fitting into a set,” he says.
“Obviously you're trying to wedge them in-between older songs that are better known and we've found the songs off the new record fitting in really well, and in some cases it feels like they're even going above and beyond the response to the older songs.”
Sam goes on to say that with the release of 'Good Mood' in their tenth year as a band, Ball Park Music are beginning to attract the next generation of followers.
“It genuinely feels like there's, if it's not too arrogant to say, a new, younger wave of fans who are getting into the band and maybe the new record is actually their starting point,” he says.
“When we did Groovin The Moo we [noticed] some of the new songs were going off way more than some of the older songs, which we always thought were our staples, so that's a good thing.
"All artists I think prefer playing their more recent material and I think it's given us the confidence to even put a few more into the set for this next tour.”
Ball Park Music & San Cisco Tour Dates
Fri 7 Sep - Festival Hall (Melbourne)Sat 8 Sep - Brisbane Festival @ The Riverstage
Fri 14 Sep - UOW UniHall (Wollongong)
Sat 15 Sep - NEX (Newcastle)
Fri 21 Sep - UC Refectory (Canberra)
Sat 22 Sep - Big Top @ Luna Park (Sydney)
Sat 6 Oct - Fremantle Arts Centre
Sun 7 Oct - Astor Theatre (Perth)
Fri 19 Oct - Thebarton Theatre (Adelaide)
Sat 20 Oct - City Oval (Ballarat)
Wed 24 Oct - The Goods Shed (Hobart)
