Ocean Alley at Riverstage 10/02/2022

Written by Emma Newbury

Two years of anticipation finally gave way to Ocean Alley’s Australian tour promoting their third album Lonely Diamond this week. Fans flocked to the Riverstage venue to see the Aussie legends live over the Wednesday and Thursday night. The Something Different Team were lucky enough to be a part of the fun on the Thursday night show. 

A beautiful sunset accompanied the first opener of the night, as Dulcie greeted the small crowds trickling into the venue, wafting down the paths of the botanic gardens as their ears carried them into the Riverstage gates. The emerging Perth outfit had patiently stayed on Ocean Alley’s roster for 2 years to play the gig, which paid off as they got to debut their new single “tell ur friends” to hundreds of new listeners who are now most likely new fans. 

Hockey Dad were an unexpected twist to the event, taking the place of Psychedelic Porn Crumpets who were unavailable after the ever-changing dates and rescheduling of the tour. Just 2 weeks prior they had played the Fortitude Music Hall on their own tour after a 2 year wait, and took their new repertoire from the Brain Candy album out into the spotlight. Accompanied with their new third member Stephen Bourke, Hockey Dad absolutely ripped through their set, playing new tunes such as Germaphobe, Good Eye, and I Missed Out, as well as a few old favourites from the Blend Inn album, and of course the cherished Seaweed from the Dreamin’ EP. The now-trio worked well, with Steve complimenting the band well and having a cheeky and high-energy stage presence from the get-go. 

While everyone was socialising on the grassy hills, already jumping with excitement as they discussed Hockey Dad and Dulcie’s sets, a sudden light jolted the orientation of the space. The soft coos of Dire Straits “I want my… I want my MTV” and the building synth behind it started its course, building up the tension between the expecting crowd and the band that would emerge. In came the drums as the synths climaxed even further to make the hairs stand up on your arms, and suddenly in came the guitar riff, the band, and the screaming in respective order. Ocean Alley had arrived. 

The band said their quick hellos and exclaimed how grateful they were for the loyal fans who had held onto their tickets for a whopping 2 years to be able to attend the gig, before plunging into Tombstone – the first single off of their Lonely Diamond album. 

Something about the way the band presented themselves on stage that night couldn’t help but look like they were performing straight out of a 70s variety show. The lights shone powerful hues of green, gold, and red, highlighting the large Ocean Alley banner at the back of the stage, and the band’s keyboardist Lach Galbraith donned two very mid-century looking keyboards while the rest of the band all panned out evenly over the stage. Another stand-out feature to the show was the most interesting prop I’ve ever seen – boxes with mirrors on the front, that also had lights inside of them. These bad boys were visually amazing, providing trippy visuals to illustrate the songs they played with. 

The band effortlessly strung songs from their new Lonely Diamond album, as well as Chiaroscuro and Lost Tropics, into a blend covering the whole set, allowing for a great deal of their discography to get consistent play time. This was probably the best way to do it considering the diversity of OA’s fan base. You’re covering all grounds of promoting your new work, while also acknowledging the fans who have been there since the Yellow Mellow days.  

While the band are only just getting to play their 2020 album for the first time, a lot of talk has already occurred over the receival of the album. Being the winner of Australia’s music award of the people – the Triple J’s Hottest 100 – is like wielding a double-edged sword. Unless you know how to work said sword, it’s easy to fall prey to your own success. A lot of H100 winners become vulnerable to the elephant in the room as to whether they’ve reached the peak of their musical career - suddenly all eyes are on you, and your fan base becomes a lot more demanding of how you run the joint and a little less empathetic to your subsequent albums. While I personally believe Ocean Alley are sticking to their roots and trying to create something that is true to themselves on Lonely Diamond and with the new single, Chiaroscuro has definitely loomed over their heads, as you hear punters in the crowd go full out for the likes of Knees and Confidence but are a little less lively for songs such as Infinity and All Worn out. It was clear that Ocean Alley noticed this too, encouraging people to get a bit more up and about as the middle of the show featured a lull in participation. The crowd got up and about again by the end of the night as the energy Ocean Alley was putting oozed off the stage and into the audience.   

While gatekeepers may be stubborn on Ocean Alley’s insane fame over the years, there’s definitely a reason for them becoming such a huge asset to Australian music. Ocean Alley provide a beautiful blend of 70s infused rock-meets-reggae, and have memorable choruses that stick with you, as you walk around the house crooning “won’t be long until we touch back down”. While the band’s third album might be needlessly criticised to its predecessors – two predominantly different sounding bodies of work, it still shows a maturing of OA’s sound, generating a number of popular hits while also making room for colourful and abstract instrumental-based tunes. Although we might be on the right stone at the wrong time, at least we have Ocean Alley to listen to. 

Wanna know what was played? Here’s the night’s setlists: 

Dulcie

• Ethereal

• Never The Way

• Cold Hard Truth

• Sun Blind

• Tell Ur Friends

• Fall

• Own Ground

• Nothing Left

Hockey dad 

• homely feeling 

• Germaphobe 

• I want to be everybody

• Good eye

• Itch

• I missed out

• Sweet release 

• Seaweed

• Join the club

Ocean alley

• Dire straits tease intro

• Tombstone

• Way Down

• Yellow mellow 

• Lemonworld

• Infinity

• The comedown

• Pink Floyd LAV

• Wet Dreams

• Stained glass 

• Overgrown

• Touch back down

• Hot chicken

• All Worn Out

• Man you were looking for 

• Partner in Crime

• Puesta de Sol

• Confidence 

• Happy Sad

Encore:

• Luna

• Baby come back

• Knees

Photos by Gabi Rankine