On a cold rainy Friday night, there were a few Melbournians who disregarded the elimination round of AFL footie between Melbourne and St Kilda to witness what the Perth music scene has to offer, as the Corner hosted The Panda Band and The Sleepy Jackson.

As I arrived at the Corner, I was in time to tap my heels to tunes of the local support Brendan Welch as he opened the night. Typical to most local support acts, the noise of acquaintances greeting & kiddies gossiping filled the venue but nonetheless he proudly finished.

The stage (this is what they prepared earlier) for The Panda Band was decorated with palm leaves to look like bamboo….panda…bamboo get it, get it. When the members of The Panda Band arrived on stage, they looked like a group of university computer science students who had not seen a razor within this century. As they performed songs from their album This Vital Chapter, their rock aura emerged and I gained more of an appreciation of their stage presence and found myself bopping happily to their songs.

The members of The Sleepy Jackson were introduced to the stage by electronic samples & mood stirring lights. The personality and face of The Sleepy Jackson, Luke Steele, had a definite ego quality about him and he made sure that the audience knew it. The first song they played was ‘Devil was in my yard’ from the album Personality, One was a Spider, One was a Bird, which was a good start for the night and lured the audience into the world of Steele.

Introducing his fiancé, then his brother Jake at the beginning of the night, Steele finally introduced the other members of the Sleepy Jackson band only after playing half a dozen songs: groovy bass player Dave Symes; the drummer and audience favourite, Malcolm Clark; and lead guitar and long time member of the Sleepy Jackson, Lee Jones.

Playing some goodies from their previous album Lovers, dedicated fans were pleased to find that The Sleepy Jackson were still playing the songs which launched them to their commercial status.

Halfway through the snap, crackle and pop show, Steele sang a song about the latest stage of his emotional life, being in love and being engaged. I must admit that I wasn’t persuaded by this song, which Steele played solo with an acoustic guitar. It sounded like a song he made up on the spot and it was sung with poor pitch. It was a relief when he finished the song and the other members of the band were invited back to finish the show off with a good mix of songs from both albums.
 
Throughout the night, their more recognised songs were more structured, sounded infallible and received well by the audience. It seemed that The Sleepy Jackson was too cool for school for an eccentric encore the kiddies were after as they ended the night with a group bow and Steele taking a few more polaroids for his ego collection which was actually quiet amusing to all.

The Personality Tour not only helped the band to elevate their already popular position in Australia’s music scene but it also gave the extrovert Steele, a window to express the dramas of his life, from his alcoholism, to born-again Christian faith, from crazy working collaborations and to his love-life (not necessarily in the right order). For the Australian audience, it is up to us to embrace what this band has to give, either as music entertainment or a soundtrack to the dramas of our own lives.