Words by: Belinda Quick
Pictures by: Cameron Stemmler @filmandmusicdegenerate
‘Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm, and harmony’ —
Thomas Merton
My father told me once that moderation was the key to happiness and success. I was too young at the time to understand it, but his message has stayed omnipresent and echoed throughout all my life’s stages.
Keeping me somehow tethered, his internalised voice reminded me – it wasn’t the ecstasy of the highs which, enticing, cannot last, and, concurrently, there’s no truth in the adage ‘what doesn’t kill you make you stronger’. Those lows may not destroy the body but will defeat the spirit, and that is most definitely worse. Rather, he argued, the secret to strength, the trick to endurance was so much simpler and would sustain every living creature on earth so much more fulfillingly. Strive, my child, for BALANCE & COMPOSURE.
With the sun setting outside on the first of consecutively blisteringly hot days in Adelaide, the local act opens; the BLUSH of the evening, “releasing an EP next month”, invites onlookers to boycott being sad and come inside. The Lion Arts Factory still yet to fill the crowded spaces, the group ‘led graciously by Annita Vucic’ channels shoegazing legends Mazzy Star. Shades of blue, apricot and lilac illuminate Harry Nathan whose figure continues the tradition of lynchpin bassists, protectively aside Vucic, collaboratively moving with guitarist Jack Paech.
‘For some time, a solo project’, GLITTERER’s Ned Russin recognises ‘no man is an island’ and ‘I don’t want to be invisible’. Now banded, the DC enigma has a trio of able Bodies to help him run the race. Blazing red hues coalesce, plastic cups empty, as guitar reverbs and tonight’s number two wander through their setlist, traversing 2024’s Rationale. Russin announces ‘It’s my turn again’, hypnotising Adelaide’s audience whether or not they Didn’t Want It. I Can’t Feel Anything, lost in the music for ‘a couple more, then that’s us for tonight’; Are You Ready for what’s next?
Jon Simmons’ acoustic guitar and serene effect softly screams, “Adelaide, how are you?” United, he assures us we’re going to get this done by any means, my head, and I’m Swimming already. Not the only one, Simmons
“Cannot stress how excited I am to be back here in Australia; we love it.”
The band and audience free fall together for an hour, not wildly and out of control, but secured in the safety of Parachutes that moderate our ‘balance, order, rhythm and harmony’.
Every stage member begs Notice Me, as they become restless for the fan favourite. Andy Slaymaker particularly, taking his guitar For A Walk as the band’s youngest member, Dennis Wilson, ever-energetically beats his drumkit and furrows his brow, as the aptly-titled track hits at the Back of Your Head. Having “a little episode at Cry Baby last night” Simmons jokes, “can we turn up the heat in here?” delighting his bandmates who burst into laughter, and, ready for the Afterparty, invites the audience to come along with them on this ‘Friday night in Adelaide’.
Our cross to bear, Balance and Composure’s January’s offerings burn like this extended autumnal summer. Still maintaining that delicately scaled Saviour Mode, Simmons drips with sweat, while Erik Petersen & Matt Werner, contrastingly, keep an inimitable cool. Under a full moon and contained within the bricked heat, Simmons’ dance under the calm blue ocean of light is a living Postcard vision. A snapshot of nostalgic currency, I Can’t Do This Alone encapsulates the contribution of everyone’s energy in building and sustaining tonight’s temperament.
Never too much, nor not enough, their name perfectly chosen, (or perhaps divinely assigned), Balance and Composure are precisely that. Inspired by ‘real life, learning and growing as a person’, and admiring the beauty in its naturally protracted flow, it’s effortlessly easy to believe the hype I’d heard and now witnessed.
As Thomas Merton articulated for another context, their music is “Art [and] enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time”, not devoid nor overwhelmed by any emotion or experience, but moderated with intention and balanced by perfect harmony.
