This year’s Sydney Homebake Festival once again showcased the high calibre of Australian music and comedy talent, despite being headlined by an American act.
Comedy tents are a fairly new addition to the Australian music festival scene, but are a perfect fit according to popular comedian and Triple J presenter Tom Ballard, who performed on the day.
‘It’s cool, it’s huge in the UK,’ he said. ‘I love gigs where those two things collide… a lot of comedians are really big music fans as well.’
One of the reasons Ballard loves the combination so much is because ‘every comedian wants to be a musician, and every musician wants to be a comedian, that’s how it goes,’ he said. Ballard’s personal route into the job though, officially, was missing out on an acting career. ‘Comedy came up at the high school competition, I did that and it went well…and I didn’t get into NIDA, so I just kept doing stand up.’
But these days, comedy is natural for him. ‘It can be the easiest thing in the world, when people are on board and it just kind of rolls. When it goes badly, sometimes it feels like work, but most of the time you feel like it’s a pretty cool gig.’
Tom Ballard concluded our short interview on the day by saying that people should buy the Ball Park Music album. Maybe that was because he was standing next to their bass player in the queue for food? (Which incidentally, was where this reviewer had spotted and cornered him in the first place.)
Jen from Ball Park Music is a bit of an anti-rock star. She’d changed her clothes after the set so no one in the crowd would recognize her, and joked that next time she’s probably going to turn up in track pants and no make-up because she’s completely comfortable with herself.
She also casually admitted, with a toothy metallic smile, that people probably think she’s about 12 due to her height and dental braces. She certainly does look young (though not that young) but in reality, it’s got a lot to do with her laid back attitude.
‘People think musicians are all really cool, but we’re all just nerds,’ she said. For the member of a band playing sold out headline gigs, an album in the ARIA charts, the best Triple J unearthed trophy and in the Hottest 100 last year – this chick is chilled.
The group were thrown together for a university assignment back in their hometown of Brisbane a few years ago, and have been together ever since. They drew a sizeable crowd at Homebake on the day, who were loving the addition of two trombone players in their hit ‘iFly’.
Showing his Aussie sense of humour, lead singer Sam Cromack said, during the set, that the day was ‘a celebration of Australian music…and Blondie!’ His comment echoed what everyone seemed to have been saying since the Homebake line-up was announced – why the heck was an American band playing at this festival? We still have no idea, aside from the assumption that the organisers couldn’t resist the big name. But it was a good day nonetheless – out of around 60 acts, all but one were Australian.
With accomplished local musicians such as Tame Impala, Angus Stone and Kimbra giving incredible performances on the day, no one could argue that Australian music lacks the quality to fill a whole festival with entertainment. Emerging acts such as San Cisco, Seth Sentry and Dinosaur also excited the crowd just as much as the established artists, solidifying this fact without doubt.
The unique thing about local music is that when they greet an Aussie crowd, it feels like a mate making a speech at a birthday party. They laugh, they’re down to earth, and there’s very little aura or mystery about it. It’s like one really big, friendly, day-long party.
Hundreds of punters left the Domain sunburnt and rosy-cheeked after this year’s Homebake, and it’s a sure bet they’ll be back next year for more of the same.
Homebake 2012
The Domain, Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney
8 December