The Jezabels

After seeing them at Splendour, and being captured by their debut album Prisoner and recent EPs, I snapped up tickets to see The Jezabels in Ballarat pretty quick - which sold out fast!

Andrea was my gig buddy for the night, and we had dinner together at Thai Fusion beforehand, for a really good catch up, and wine. We then walked up to Karova Lounge, and found a spot in the filling band room to catch Canadian Hey Rosetta! With violin and cello on stage, this band provided the perfect interlude for the main act.

The Jezabels arrived on stage to much noise from the filled Karova, and launched straight into their atmospheric indie-rock. Lead Hayley Mary wowed with her vocal range and animated movement dominating the front of the stage, moved in tight black including stockinged arms, as she belted out each number with everything she had. Endless Summer and the very popular Mace Spray were early set tracks, and allowed the crowd to be vocal too.

I had a girl faint next to me during Long Highway, which was awesome (the song, not the fainting!) - it was quite warm in the old YMCA pool pit that night! She's So Hard featured also, with a good mix of new album, the EPs of late, and the older EP.

Hayley spoke to us just towards the end of the show to thank the previous bands and announce the final numbers, and this was the only direct communication - however she had the full band room attention with her, and interacted subtly with her three other band members. Disco Biscuit Love finished the night, via an encore, capped off another great gig here.

As we walked out and waited for our ride home, we discovered that the day had ticked over and it was my birthday. Sitting outside in the night, seeing the young people of Ballarat celebrating their end of high school, we were both reminded how old we are, just by the reflection of our thoughts on today's fashion! Ha!