The Spitfires @ NorfolkBasement, Perth (26/08/11)

Mon 29th Aug, 2011 in Gig Reviews

The Cross Bars were up first, looking so young, but putting on a fine show. If you like grungy alt-rock, reminiscent of early Silverchair and Stone Temple Pilots, then you should definitely see these guys.

The FAIM Project’s Singer, Noah Skape jumped onto stage in a surprising choice of dress. Now Skape should have listened to the wise words of Blair Waldorf; “leggings are not pants!” After announcing to the crowd that he had asked the Basement management what was the least amount of clothes he could get away with, we were lucky he was wearing anything at all. Blasting into their first song My Funny Metaphor, the reason he felt the need to strip down became clear. Showing off some of the most enthusiastic and theatrical dance moves ever seen from a front man. The whole band seems as enthusiastic as Skape, especially guitarist Jacob Fry, who has one of the scariest/funniest ‘singing faces’ around.

Their best song was Than I off their newly released Dork EP which saw Skape getting down into the crowd and creating a one man circle pit and getting up close and personal with members of the audience. The waltzy Fucked struck a chord with the crowd who responded by breaking out their best ballroom moves.

They finished with the lyric heavy If you’d like to get to know me which had a Panic! At the Disco-ish feel to it and Honesty which was, according to Skape “The last punk rock you’ll hear… for the rest of your life”. FAIM is a band that you can’t see just once; their musical skill combined with Skape’s theatrics and enthusiasm makes them worth seeing over and over again.

The third band of the night was Minute 36, who had a slightly intoxicated mature woman all the way from Bunbury in their fan base. Impeccably dressed with their crisp white business shirts and matching skinny black ties, with Singer Kris Nelson’s double bass, they look every bit the rockabilly band. But throw in some dick jokes between songs about Zombies , Ghosts and “sluts”, shaped by Nelson’s haunting vocals and you have Minute 36. Their songs are like rockabilly mixed with a bit of jazz, with a hint of Tim Burton’s eerie imagination thrown in.

Piano Face with its carousel-like melody and A Golden Glove of Humility were the standouts from the set, as were the homo erotic come-ons made to Spitfires’ Paul Bovenkerk between songs. Minute 36 are a great band if you want to see something a bit different; they have created their own niche in the Perth music scene and look like they are going to be around for a while.

Coming down to the business end of the night, The Spitfires, armed with new drummer Bradley ‘Cheekbones’ Stevens launched into their set with the upbeat and moody sounding Shallow Grave. Spitfire classics My Disappointment Never Dies and Skeletons also made the set as well as new song Suffer Kate. Crowd favourite Fox News was the last song of the night, which made for a short headlining set, but as vocalist Sean Regan explained, “our new drummer doesn’t know all our songs yet”, which also explained the lack of Spitfires’ tried and true covers of The Clash and The Libertines. But with the crowd’s insistence and with a bit of help from Regan (“snare kick, snare kick!”), Stevens fluked his way through single Camden Town is Burning Down.

All the bands gave their own flavour to the show, but the crowd at the Norfolk basement on Friday was what made it a really great night. Whether it was Fremantle, the fact that summer is on its way or that it was Friday, Friday and everyone’s gotta get down on Friday, the gig at the Norfolk Basement was one to remember.