A year is a long time in music. When Starky toured Western Australia this time last year, they’d had a couple of catchy-yet-disposable radio hits but their potential failed to translate into immediate success.

Fast forward to 2006 and the situation couldn’t be more different. The Sydney quartet have just released their second album and the change in style is striking. Instead of the SG power-pop that defined the band’s earlier material, the album borrows more from the new wave sounds of the 1980s and puts them alongside bands like The Killers, Editors and Bloc Party.

No surprise then, that tonight’s opening band also belongs to the jagged-guitars-plus-infectious-grooves club. In their short existence, Sugar Army have managed to upstage just about every band they’ve played with and you get the feeling they’re still in first gear. Comprising two members of The Wednesday Society (bassist Jamie Sher on drums and guitarist Ian Berney on bass) the band seems far from the finished article, as singer Patrick McLaughlin and guitarist Todd Honey don’t seem nearly as comfortable on stage as their counterparts. The difference between the band’s early material and their newer tracks is striking though, and if they continue to improve at this rate they will no doubt move on to bigger stages and bigger crowds.

In stark contrast to Sugar Army, The Silents are the closest thing the Perth scene has to the finished article. On the back of just one EP, The Silents have scored high rotation on Triple J, played on Rove Live and are about to head off on tour with The Vines. Tonight, the four-piece skimp on the EP tracks (Little People, Nightcrawl) and focus on newer material. When they do bring the older tracks out, they are louder, tighter and more complete than earlier versions. The vocal attack is still three-pronged (guitarists Jamie Terry and Lloyd Stowe plus bassist Sam Ford) but Stowe assumes the role of frontman for the majority of the set while Terry provides keys and lead guitars and Ford is at home on backing vocals. With the new material, the band have finally laid the Beatles comparisons to rest and have found a style that stretches from pop to hard rock to mod to psychedelic. Anybody could leave right now and say they got their money’s worth.

But anyone that chose to leave would have missed out. Within about 30 seconds of opening track The Wreckery it’s obvious that Starky are nothing like the band they used to be. Singer-guitarist Beau Cassidy still plays an SG but with the range of sounds going on you could hardly tell. Jonny Wilson’s guitars breathe new life into the older tracks while the rhythm section of Nick Neal (bass) and Saul Foster (drums) pull everything together.

This being just the second show of the band’s national tour, you can’t help but worry. Cassidy looks and sounds exhausted throughout the opening half-hour of the set and when he finally takes things up a notch it’s as though he’s surviving on adrenaline alone. To his right, Wilson is almost motionless but somehow manages to manage a few dozen pedals with his eyes shut. Neal, stage left, and Foster behind him carry the set for the bulk of the hour-long set. Cassidy is still the centre of attention but the basssist and drummer make up for the two guitarists’ lack of energy. Foster grins as he nails every beat while Neal is more than comfortable handling his pulse-like basslines and backing vocals to boot.

As the band shift from Distraction to Hands Down, Cassidy steals a verse and chorus from New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle, but, sadly enough, in the style of Frente’s mid-nineties cover rather than the original. Sure, Starky may have set their sights on the eighties but their pop roots aren’t far away at all.

Amazingly though, Batman saves the day for Cassidy and Wilson. Yes, Batman. After passable renditions of Ritual and We Don’t Exist, the frontman apologises for being distracted by Batman Returns, playing on TV screens at the back of the venue. If the band were going through the motions in the opening half of the set, a quick break in proceedings to share a joke about the caped crusader certainly raises the spirits.

As the set draws towards its close, Starky play their winning hand. She Got Ambition, Hey Bang Bang and Me Michelle all demonstrate why the new Starky is in a different league to the Starky of old. The songs are still lively and this is still very much a rock show but there is a kind of atmosphere in Hey Bang Bang that the Saturday Night, Sunday Morning Starky could only dream of. If the band continue to improve at this rate, who knows where they’ll be this time next year. Yes, the guys still have a thing or two to learn about consistency… but a year is a long time in music.

Check out FasterLouder’s full coverage of Starky here