Felicity Groom and the BlackBlack Smoke @ Amplifer

Mon 26th Oct, 2009 in Gig Reviews

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Felicity Groom herself summed up the night perfectly during her set. “This is fun – take off your pants,” she said as she looked at the appreciative, swaying crowd, and who could argue with her? It was an eclectic night of music showcasing some of Perth’s best folk, psychedelia and blues-jam bands.

The night did not start out so fun, though, with The Atlas Mountains producing a solidly-played, if boring and pretentious (for the sake of being pretentious) set. Listening to The Atlas Mountains was like listening to Nickelback, albeit with less grating vocals. Each of their songs sounded almost exactly like the previous one. At one point, their vocalist (who had a penchant for treating his guitar more as a prop than an instrument) recited a William Yeats poem to mixed reactions from the crowd. “Who’s Yeats?” asked a confused punter.

Thankfully, Red Shoes Boy picked up the pace afterwards with a great set of blues-styled jamming tinged with some eastern twang. There were no red shoes on stage but there was a bare-footed boy instead. Instead of pretensions towards cerebral rock, Red Shoes Boy simply just rocked out and allowed their music to speak for itself.

“Who wants to join us in the Psychedelic Asylum ?” asked The Silents midway through their set, and a bunch of people gladly joined them on the stage playing an assortment of percussive instruments. The Silents have changed their sound greatly since their first album, and have lost much of the sun-struck naivety of Things To Learn. Their darker psychedelic excursions with swirling guitars, a throbbing bass, abstract drum beats and the occasional keyboard were very interesting, if too esoteric for much of the crowd which thinned noticeably towards the end of the set.

Felicity Groom and the Black Black Smoke have had a busy week, playing twice at the One Movement showcase (both in the Fringe and in the main festival) and now headlining this show. However, they showed no sign of being affected by the extra activity. It was a welcome sight to see Groom with her full band, because they add so much extra dynamic to her music.

Groom was hauntingly beautiful as always with her mysterious-sounding folk. Songs such as Criminal and 39 Ways To Leave Your Lover worked better with this full arrangement, and Ryan and Groom also did a dramatically tongue-in-cheek duet midway through the set, showing a different facet of the Groom sound.

Overall, it was a great night and it was brave of Groom to have chosen some eclectic bands as support. It would have been much easier for her to have chosen similarly-styled folk bands instead, but her choice of blues and psychedelia highlights her own willingness to push the envelope with her sound.

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