There are several musicians that Cornish folk, myself included, have claimed as their own; Jack Johnson, Ben Howard, The Kooks. Pretty much anything that you’d imagine playing from a beach-bound VW camper van. The latest honorary Cornishmen? Australian six-piece Ocean Alley, who brought the beach to Camden on Sunday evening for the final stop of their world tour.
Hailing from Australia’s Northern Beaches, the band have perfected their own unique blend of indie, psychedelic rock – the ideal soundtrack for slow motion running into the sea with a surfboard under one arm. Emerging onto the Roundhouse stage with a backdrop of sunset lighting, the band kicked off their set with tracks Touch back Down, Tombstone and fan favourite, Knees.
With a hefty turnout from London’s Australian contingent, the sea of heads included many mullets, bandanas, beards and sunglasses (despite the 9pm start time). Every few minutes someone would climb onto their partner’s shoulders to get a better view, though security quickly made a beeline through the crowd and demanded they get down.
Taking place on the very last day of summer 2024 – as the autumn equinox set in on Sunday, September 22nd – an Ocean Alley gig might just have been the perfect way to send it off. The band’s 2018 track, The Comedown, provided a moment of wistful reflection on a long, chaotic but brilliant summer.
The audience roared when frontman Baden Donegal declared it was time for some older tunes, with Yellow Mellow lifting the mood and bringing with it a heavy dose of bright, honey lighting. The band didn’t chat much. They thanked their supports, Hockey Dad and CVC, and noted that the energy of the crowd was “F*cking amazing”. Despite little interaction from Donegal, his vocals were pristine, hitting long, growling notes that sounded identical to the recordings.
Eventually came the instantly recognisable groovy bass of Confidence, by far their most widely known song, partially due to its recent TikTok success (with over a million videos set to it). Soon, the sea of beanie-wearing heads became a sea of girls on shoulders, and by this point, the security had given up getting them to stop. For the duration of their 90-minute set, Ocean Alley turned the Roundhouse into a festival as the crowd clung to the last few hours of summer.
For their encore, the band returned to the sound of Baby Come Back, a cover of the 1977 classic (and an appropriate choice for an encore), before closing with Lemonworld and waving goodbye to their 2024 world tour. For the band, now returning home, Australian summertime is only just getting started, while seven days of rain awaits us lucky Londoners. Hello autumn.
