Climbing onto the stage quietly and without a fuss, Perth acoustic/folk girl Felicity Groom played a set much the same. Cradling a zither (a rather extraordinary instrument, which is basically a flat acoustic guitar with many, many strings and buttons which mute them as you strum) Groom opened with the song Bird, the mix of strange, echoed, poker-ish tones and Groom’s deep, smoky, Australian accent vocals created a rather eclectic and interesting start for the night. The next song “about Brixton, England” was equally interesting, with Groom picking up the acoustic guitar – her voice almost wailing in the verses. The songs Groom play are quite relaxed in general and the crowd picked up on this, sitting in the centre of the room early and creating a trend that would last the entire evening. Groom’s songs ranged from dark and almost guttural to gypsy-ish and feeling like an accordion should be being played alongside. Unfortunately Groom’s set was almost too relaxed, with each of her often melancholy songs seeming to move into the same pattern of simple, relaxed folk, and though singing on the offbeat helped to jar the audience a bit, her set ultimately became stale.

It was obvious as the crowd increased that this was going to be Jez Mead’s night. Here to launch his single, Sucker, Mead, the self confessed “funny little skinny man” walked onto stage. Moving straight into the set, he crouched and started playing with effect pedals to create echoes and utilising reverb to achieve a fantastic ghostly effect. Then was up and thumping his foot onto a hollow box creating his own bass drum as he broke into the opening song of the night, his gravelly voice reminiscent of Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. His next song had a Mexican feel to it and as he started bashing out the driving beat with his foot, it was clear to everyone we were in for some great entertainment, with people getting up early and dancing in the space in front of the stage.

Appearing relaxed throughout the night, Mead pulled out his harmonica and explained that the next song was about “not being able to tell someone you really quite like, that you really quite like them”. The harmonica perfectly complements Mead’s playing and the song really allowed his lyrics to shine with lines such as “I wanted to tell you, but the words just suicide” helping to drive the song. His next song a beautifully simple piece entitled Devil was “usually a duet” (with Julia Stone doing the honours on the EP) but not tonight, with Mead taking both parts. The song allowed Mead to show off his impressive picking skills and featured memorable lines such as “the Devil wants my brain for its desire / well that’s alright, I don’t mind”.

Mead pulled Felicity Groom back on stage to play the floor tom (with an empty beer bottle) and ex-girlfriend Nadal on tambourine for the song Arms of the World. Reminiscent of John Butler’s early stuff, the catchy, boppy song automatically had some of the crowd up and dancing to the driving beat and jarring guitar. The next song kept them up and was the reason for the night – the single Sucker. About Mead’s “ex girlfriend and her boyfriend” the single was a bit of a let down – not to say it isn’t a good song, but it’s simply the most mainstream and safe song in Mead’s repertoire. It didn’t really grab attention like his earlier songs of the set and it was too easily forgotten, when it should have been the standout piece of the night.

Moving through the pounding song – The Truth is Terrible, which had the effect that Mead was playing with additional people, a sweaty (and with good reason) Mead announced the next song was for “the Kiwi contingent” before launching into a Celtic/Blues-esque song. With exceptionally fast fretwork and its Irish Jig quality, the song was a ferocious and occasionally epic tune allowing Mead to show off his skill as he mixed up strumming and bashing the chords to create an amazing sound.

Just when you thought he couldn’t excel himself any further, Mead pulled out his harmonica again for an amazing, very Australian acoustic rendition of Michael Jackson’s Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough, the airy verse slowly built up to the chorus after which Mead changed the beat, getting faster and moving into a more improvisational feel prompting cheers from the audience (at this stage one male member of the audience had risen and was dancing crazily so it was unsure if the cheers were for Mead or this Napoleon Dynamite).

Bob Marley’s Hammer had Mead playing with harmonica in one hand before using it as a slide on his guitars fretboard. The song built to a brilliant whirlwind of country/folk music before segueing into When I Was A Cowboy (Western Plains) (Covered by many musicians including Van Morrison and Alvin Youngblood Hart). With a brilliant harmonica solo the controlled chaos subsided into the loudest applause of the night.

However the crowd was not going to be let down in such a rush, Mead then pulled out another cover (also on the EP) of 80’s rockers Kiss. His groovy, laid back acoustic rendition of I Was Made For Loving You (prompting another “sexy” dance from Napoleon) showing off Mead’s ability to change things up, with his string plucking up the fretboard creating echoes throughout the song. A standing ovation followed Mead off stage but not for long, he was back with an old song, Belly Up and with prompting from a friend in the audience, the crowd was on their feet and bopping away to the ho-down-esque song, with it’s very quick lyrics and Mead’s combination of strumming and knocking on the body of the guitar it was an excellent end to a superb night of entertainment.

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