Aptly named Architecture in Helsinki returned to Perth and filled Capitol on Wednesday night with a crowd as diverse and strange (but friendly!) as the band’s members.

Tomás Ford was a curious choice of support, and the bemused, good natured reaction of the audience was a testament… to something. Perhaps to Architecture in Helsinki’s diverse audience, or that they have come to expect the unexpected, Perhaps they just trust the band to know what works. Perhaps the over-capacity filled Capitol crowd was just having a good night.

Ford’s act is a kind of old-skool-goth cabaret with karaoke. The opening minutes made the show as he took the stage and anointed the front row with red paint like a kind of vampire priest, and proceeded to growl, wiggle and strut like a god both on stage and in the audience. The crowd was his oyster, so to speak.

Designed to shock without being terribly shocking, it is certainly entertaining; although watching him drag a just-past-puberty boy on stage to gyrate against was a little bit ick. His audience never took their eyes off him, perhaps because they were afraid he would single them out and embarrass them too. A computer crash slowed the momentum, but nothing could stop the enthused sing-along when he karaoked Radiohead’s Creep upstairs and downstairs and reminded people of how much they love that song.

A quick Architecture lesson is surprisingly informative about the nature of the band, its members, history and music, and the real life experience is exactly as chaotic as it sounds. Architecture in Helsinki is Functionalist: Confusing and controversial because functionalist designs often feature functionless adornment, raising the metaphysical; Who is served by function? Art Nouveau: Arching curves and floral designs not limited to a single aspect but found infiltrating an entire lifestyle. Neo-Classicalism: reminiscent of 80s cold-war movie sets in the Soviet Union. Overall, there is clear evidence of utopistic planning: half-realised grandiose dreams of perfect balance.

Somehow this mish-mash of everything that shouldn’t work really does. AiH leave you breathless, confused and wondering when you will be able to go back.

Multi-instrumentalists each one, the six members sing, jump around, and swap instruments in chaotic disorganised fashion never tripping over or going out of tune or time, which pays tribute to the flawless sense of rhythm owned by each one. On stage, they look wrong. When they mention that they had been on the road for four months you wonder if they’re down to their washing-day clothes, but it became clear half way through Like it or Not that for AiH, it really is all about the music. Like how they look or not, it’s too bad. Their music gets stuck in your head and infiltrates other aspects of your life. Their attitude to themselves on stage infected audience members, liberating them from their self consciousness and leaving them free to express themselves, however they liked.

The cheering at the end of their set was not the usual slow clap characterised by an audience that knows an encore is planned and is vaguely annoyed that they have to beg the band they have paid to see to come back and finish their set, it was genuine adoration and appreciation for an awesome and entertaining set, so when they returned to the stage, and finished with Heart it Races, they were right.

It’s no wonder Bruce Willis lists Architecture in Helsinki as one of his favourite bands, like him, they are a little bit of everything that was wrong with the 80s but somehow, memorable, mesmerising, entertaining and a little bit exhausting. Yippee Kai-Ay motherfucker.