The epitome of understatement in the world of modern motoring, pictured here in this heart breaking testament to youth long lost, the original ‘78 Saab of the transport variety did have some slight assimilations with today’s current musical type. While, like the band, it probably deserved to be far more successful, it was a creation that one doubts ever really intended to overtake the market leaders of our own wide and yellow bellied, thick skinned land. Designed perhaps more with faraway cobble and grassed areas in mind, its forte was for quick trips down quaint alleys to collect The Village Gazette and a packet of crisps. Besides, the quite regular product recalls wouldn’t have helped much either. But quality, reliability and longevity are exactly where today’s band version differs wildly from its temperamental mechanical namesake.

As a talented group of musicians with singer and guitarist Ben Nash at its core, 78 Saab bring with them a delicate arsenal of infectious hooks, riffs and melodies in one tight, professional package. Revisiting Perth after playing earlier in the year as low key support act to USA’s The Shins, 78 Saab’s Nash, Jake Andrews (guitar), Garth Tregillgas (bass) and Nicholai Danko (drums) couldn’t be faulted on this occasion as a unit, indeed probably surpassing expectations of many. And unlike the car, they were actually well warmed up before they hit the stage. With more the grace of a steely classic or, to borrow Swervedriver’s phrase – Son(s) of Mustang Ford(s), the band was fully firing, running on all cylinders and countless other lame car analogies.

Like advanced postgraduates of the swirly brand of indie rock school before a faithful boxed assortment post-grad audience, they immediately delivered their formula comprising equal parts cleverness and mild-mannered predictability with a blazing, pitch-perfect couple of set openers, firstly with the ball grabbing lead guitar riff in Sunshine followed by a top-notch Cops. It worked a treat. Punters from the beer garden broke off mid-rumour to clamour inside and join the generally mature, possibly more well educated than average and quite polite for a Saturday night crowd, by now itself approaching warm and fuzzy mode, with a select few others opting for some impeccably behaved boogie. In fact the only sign of anything slightly out of order were the randomly vast areas of ghost-like floor space where so many of tonight’s audience absentees should have been located, particularly on the back of such an established and accessible 78 Saab album as Crossed Lines, although it did allow those present all the more room to walk, sit, stand or self-consciously gyrate just for the occasion.

So with The 78 Saab Live (and slightly keyboard heavy) Jukebox Show spawning neatly rendered versions of their nice guy tunes highlighted on this night by You and Your Friends, All A Lie and the aforementioned openers, a nice admiring crowd that kindly bothered to turn up, nice direct lighting and technically solid sound, it becomes apparent that above all else that is good and er, nice, that understated humility IS the new brown, that this is all about control, subdued strength, consistency, diplomacy and if you’re lucky a bit of a quip about the footy. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of that and 78 Saab delivered a great musical performance.

Only two things remained which could have projected this gig beyond the what-could-have-been. The first was the possible inclusion of Karma Package Deal or a similarly thumping Saturday night kind of tune or two to wake up the bar two thirds of the way through. Saab did deliver The City Is Humming and in the encore a faithful cover of Neil Young’s Cinnamon Girl but the set could have used the tiniest bit of an earlier, bigger shot in the arm. The second and more apparent requirement was for about another 50-100 people in the joint, which would have made a stack of difference to the overall atmosphere, but competing against AFL Finals on TV in Perth? Unlucky.

78 Saab will have no issues with timing other than whether or not it’s midnight when they play live on New Years Eve in Sydney.