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From the mouth of End of Fashion front-man, Justin Burford, “I just want to say thanks to the WAMi’s for once again helping out the WA music scene, I think it’s really great.” This years mother day’s was forgotten and replaced with the hype down at The Vault, Meville Civic Centre; a youth ‘hang out’ much like Leederville’s HQ, only a lot bigger. “Showdown” this year was a free all ages gig supporting mental health awareness and already had a lot of ticks against its name but unfortunately didn’t quite pull the numbers they were hoping it would. The plus side to this was that each performance very intimate, and everybody walked out with a free compilation CD, and there was plenty of free parking.

The bands alternated between two stages, one in the “basement”, the other in a small confined room with wooden floor boards and plenty of sound; much like a vault. Boys Boys Boys managed to pull a handful of fans onto the dance-floor. If Loud, Hard and Fast isn’t already a part of their description, it definitely should be with their clever kicks and foot tapping beats. Not to mention a very sassy taste in fashion, the girls (and boys) did a great job engaging their audience throughout their set.

It was announced that the boys from Busso, Elora Danan would not be playing due to sickness. Or maybe they just partied too hard on their national tour promoting their album release In the Room Up There this past week. There was some disappointment amongst fans.

With Elora Danan’s absence, Perth trio The Bullet Holes got the main stage, and a little bit of extra time in their set. Having been quiet on the scene the past few months for writing, The Bullet Holes gave many people’s favorite performance of the day. Who would have thought three people could make such a lot of noise? Their EP single Every Day had a few faces singing along with them and plenty of smiles from vocalist Owen “McAwesome”. They were a good lead in for Sugar Army, and by the time they were due to play, the vault was quickly filling up and things were starting to get a little more exciting.

The boys from Sugar Army have been busy bees; the release of their new single Acute for starters, as well as being spotted in several locations performing around Perth. Despite a few technical complications on guitar, Sugar Army channelled sounds from Placebo and Muse with their stand-swaying set and melodic vocals, and finished with a bang thanks to the easy-to-remember chorus from Now that you’re old enough I think that you should know that had even first time fans eager for more.

Finally, headlining act End of Fashion took the stage with the briefest of all introductions and jumped straight into Biscuit. The energy was high, even if the drummer’s left symbol fell off several times mid-song before someone came out with a hammer. “Just some technical difficulties” bassist Simon Fasolo joked. The front of the stage was filled from left to right with fans for the first time today who bopped along to rock anthems Dying for You, Fussy and the classic O Yeah.

Nothing short of entertaining from the home-grown quartet, sounding as close live as they do on their records. Bidding us farewell with The Game, a long-loved single on commercial radio, the highlight of their set was the added musical finale towards the end of the song and jump split from Justin during the bridge. Overall, an entertaining show for all ages, well worth a look next time, especially since it was free!

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