I meant to do this post earlier, and I’m going to try to keep this short and sweet.

Saturday 22 February 2014 was epic. Not only was it White Night Festival in Melbourne but it was The Nymphs first album launch. White Night is a festival held  over 12 hours, 7pm to 7am, in the Melbourne CBD. It is modelled on other White Night festivals around the world. The idea, as I understand it, is to host as many free cultural events as possible in a concentrated area, and to light up buildings around the city with interesting light shows.

I haven’t been to White Night before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. It had been extremely heavily publicised and reports in the papers over the last few days have said there were in excess of half a million people on the streets of Melbourne city. My experience of White Night was kind of mixed. There was a lot of stuff on, but there were also a lot of people trying to get to it. There were a few things that fell flat, for example, an area called ‘The Vortex’ which appeared to be a bridge with fairy lights on it. On the other hand there were a few things that were pretty cool. Specifically there was a cube in the courtyard of QV which was pretty awesome, I took some video of it, here:

I also enjoyed the reproducing piano at Hamer Hall, which was playing recordings of Rachmaninov playing both his own, and other composers’ works, and the National Gallery of Victoria being open all night. Overall I would probably give it a 6.5 out of 10; there was lots of wandering about, and it was quite lucky dip with regards to attractions. Perhaps I will be more conscious to plan my night next year.

At the start of the night however, I went to the album launch of The Nymphs; It’s been a long time awaiting. The Nymphs are a four piece a capella singing group, and they’re awesome. Their supporting acts were The Blue Bottles, a garage/surf rock group of the 60s era, and Al Parkinson, a beautiful singer songwriter.

All three acts were gorgeous, you could really feel the love they had for their craft. The gig was hosted by the Kelvin Club, an old gentlemen’s club (the sort with Chesterfield sofas and pictures of ducks, not the sort with nude ladies). The room was smallish but by the end it was packed, hot, sweaty and resonant. The Nymphs, The Blue Bottles and Al Parkinson got up on stage to do a massive conglomerated encore song; It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to. Here is a small snippet:

Overall I give the album launch a 9 out of 10 because they’re all awesome.