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Angove St, North Perth was buzzing with creativity on Friday night. On the Menora side of the road there was a vibrant little shindig happening at graphic design studio Juicebox and on the city side there was of course PVT at The Rosemount.

Many who attended PVT would not have been aware of the Juicebox show; but the general liveliness it added to the area complimented the Rosemount-bound punter excitement anyway. There was just one of those vibes in the air.

Most arrived later for the 10:55 main act (with the price of beer these days who can blame them?) and so soloist Predrag Delibasich of local experimental label Heartless Robot played to only a few. His guitar plucks and brush picking focused on layering reverbed loops to build into dense soundscapes. This wasn’t as ambient as it might sound and leant more towards the kind of swaggering surf rock Tarantino might like to use. For most he was an act suited for listening rather than watching but he provided some nice sounds behind their conversations.

Astral Travel drew a few more eyes; three girls front of stage playing something other than a Sarah Blasko/Florence/Regina Spektor clone normally does. There seems to have been a surge in interesting female rock leads in Perth over the last few years and following the infamous male-dominated Hottest 100 of “all time” (quote marks there for good reason) this is good to see. They had a lot of 70s garage about them or as they might like to piss-takingly define themselves: underground surf trance surf music.

In a world used to female voices like those of the aforementioned, Astral Travel’s lean away from vocal melody would have had some wondering “WTF?” It was music with all the disenchantment and skepticism post-modernity has brought. Some would have related, others would have missed the point and the band seemingly wouldn’t have given a shit either way.

Following these gloriously-difficult-to-describe supports, PVT arrived and pulsed out their own version of gloriously-difficult-to-describe. Whatever it was they did was incredibly engrossing and the modestly-sized crowd was possessed. Some stood zombiefied and others danced like freaks from creepy fundamentalist churches. This was quite appropriate really with the band touring off the back of their mystical new outing Church With No Magic.

The clarity and quality of the sound was supreme. Whether it was PVT’s own influence, a masterful mix from The Rosie sound desk or a combo of both is hard to say but it was a silky aural treat. The crisp production did sweet justice to the band’s mash of everything from 80s post punk to 90s Delirium-like atmospheric ambience. But such descriptions are somewhat misleading as the band only ever sound like themselves.

Richard Pike’s increased vocal emphasis in PVT’s new stuff transposed cleanly to the live setting. His chants and echoes in tracks like Light Up Bright Fires and Church With No Magic carried the same haunting elements they do on record. Laurence Pike was as impressive as drummers come and it was clear how heavily the PVT sound is based upon his beats.

Perth’s own Dave Miller was an absolute animal behind his electronics set up as he button bashed his way through the set. The glitchiness he worked into O Soundtrack My Heart favourite Didn’t I Furious contributed to it becoming one of the best of the night. Not quite the best though; that honour went to Sweet Memory and its exultingly powerful climax.

Perhaps it was all three band members’ obvious passion and appreciation for what they were doing that made this such a memorable show. They looked to be giving it all they had and the crowd could feel this and responded accordingly. The band finished a little underwhelmingly but they’d already done enough by then for this to be excused.

It was quite unbelievable it cost less than $30 to see a band of this calibre. For those lucky enough to catch the show it was worth many times that.

Visit Williamb’s gallery