Boom Crash Opera

with Throwaways and Fake Reality

Louisiana Tavern - Elizabeth

Friday 11 September 2009

When I heard that Boom Crash Opera was going to do some reunion shows, I thought they would be great to see and would help me to relive my 1980's and 90's experiences!

I was really surprised however when I heard that instead of the usual venues such as the Governor Hindmarsh, that at this stage their only gig in South Australia was at the Louisiana Tavern at the Elizabeth Shopping Centre. I did a bit of research and saw that the tickets were only $20 so thought - 'Hey why the hell not!'.

Tickets said that doors open at 8pm so I had no idea how long I would be waiting for any of the bands to come on - my first impression of the Tavern was that it was so small and would never be able to hold a decent crowd or sound for that matter, but after the dinner tables were removed I was quite surprised at how many people fitted in.

The first support band that came on at about 9pm was surprisingly a bunch of kids that formed the group 'Fake Reality', at first I thought that they were maybe doing a sound check but then they jumped into their performance, and at first there was some amusement from the crowd at a bunch of kids on stage, but the boys really worked the crowd and I think the atmosphere became disbelief that kids so young could be so good.

The ages of the boys were apparently about 15, but they showed maturity and professionalism of a band that has played together for years. The boys played mostly cover songs, but even came out with one of their own written pieces which was really good! It is just an assumption, but I don't think I have seen the last of this band and wish them luck for their future successes.

The next band to perform was 'The Throwaways', these guys were really entertaining, and played music like Pearl Jam and Tenacious D, they had the audience singing and dancing with them and really was a great warm up to get the patrons wanting more for when the main act was to come on.

Boom Crash Opera came on stage at nearly midnight, I must be getting really old but by this stage I was getting really tired and my feet were killing me - I guess one disadvantage of a smaller venue is that there was no where to sit unless you wanted to go outside.

Fronted by Dale Ryder the guys launched into some of their greatest hits, such as 'Best Things', 'Gimme', 'Get Out of the House' and 'Onion Skin'. As a band they were great and everyone that attended had a great time.

Not that it affected the performance too much but Dale Ryder the lead singer really did appear to be high on little more than life for this show, he did appear a little disorientated when it came to talking to the audience between songs. I guess this was easily forgiven though because he sang the songs brilliantly and has an amazing voice.

The performance by the band was very enjoyable and was a reminder of the great songs they released probably two decades ago!