This isn’t the first time Little Birdy have played here. It’s probably the 21st or 31st time. The Amplifier Bar was one of the venues the band often played in their early days, with much smaller crowds and much less hype. And that’s not the half of it. Compared to the band that released pop hits like Relapse and Baby Blue three years ago, the band topping tonight’s bill couldn’t be more different.

Kicking things off is singer-songwriter Jeff Strong. Playing to the typically sparse 9pm crowd, he does well to pull the early punters indoors and keeps most of them watching until he’s through. He does all the usual singer-songwriter stuff — he greets the crowd over the top of some guitar noodling; he invites a couple of friends to join him on stage; he performs the obligatory Neil Young/Johnny Cash/Bob Dylan cover (tonight it’s Cash’s ‘I Walk the Line’) — and it seems to do the trick. It’s a little unfortunate that the biggest cheer is for the Cash cover but the crowds will get used to Strong’s own tunes in time.

The crowd is about as big as it can get by the time One Horse Town take their place on stage. Birdy fans must be very familiar with this band by now, the trio having supported Katy Steele and co at countless gigs. And with good reason. The two bands have enough similarities to draw similar crowds but are different enough to keep things interesting. Add to that the fact that drummer Stuart Leach is the brother of Birdy guitarist Simon Leach. It’s also worth noting that Simon once played alongside his brother in OHT. Welcome to Perth.

Despite the obvious links to tonight’s headliners, One Horse Town are far from riding on anyone’s coattails. Frontperson Sascha Ion’s vocals dominate not unlike PJ Harvey or Tori Amos. Not to be outdone, Ronan Charles’ presence behind his keys setup is the sort of thing Little Birdy’s younger fans have nightmares about. Hunched over his Rhodes piano, Charles bludgeons dirty, filthy basslines out with one hand while adding top-end hooks with the other. With the band’s Six Feet of Snow album released last month, One Horse Town will no doubt be headlining this sort of show in the future.

By the time Little Birdy arrive onstage, the venue is just about packed. It’s a cold, wet, miserable night outside but in here it’s anything but. With new album Hollywood due out next month, the anticipation is at its obvious peak as the band walk out in front of their home crowd.

The four-or-five-piece have obviously been hard at work with their new material, however, tonight’s set opens with ‘Tonight’s the Night’, from 2004’s BigBigLove album. The nerves show, though, as fifth Beatle Fergus Deasy fails to nail his first keyboard solo of the night. None of the five let it get to them though, as they leave the first album behind them and move into a bracket of new songs, including ‘Bodies’ and current single ‘Come On Come On’. Compared to the indie-pop of BigBigLove, the new tracks ooze the excess of the 1980s and the glamour of its finest moments.

For Little Birdy though, a hometown gig means pulling out the old favourites and impressing the members’ mums and dads. The middle part of the set focuses on songs from BigBigLove (‘Message to God’, ‘I’m Excited’) and the band’s 2003 self-titled EP (‘Too Late’, ‘Relapse’). As always, ‘Relapse’ pulls one of the biggest sing-alongs of the night while ‘Too Late’ and ‘Message to God’ balance the polish of the band’s new songs out with a few teary moments.

The night takes a slightly bizarre twist when Steele pays homage to local heroes Gyroscope before leading the band into a cover of ‘Beware Wolf’. Surprisingly enough, they pull it off. Rather than performing a carbon copy of the original, they smooth off a few of the edges and give it the distinct Little Birdy sound, thanks to Leach’s guitar mastery and Steele’s trademark vocals.

The only negative to tonight’s performance is the mix. Full credit to the crew, the majority of the set sounds exactly as it should, however a few of the more subtle details are lost over the sweaty crowd. Leach’s guitar solos aren’t loud enough to give him his moment in the spotlight, Deasy’s backing vocals are often barely audible, while some of the keyboard sounds come out like those polyphonic ringtones you’re supposed to pay $4.95 for. Still, compared to BigBigLove Little Birdy, Hollywood Little Birdy are like a new band.

As the set wraps up with a mix of old (‘Beautiful to Me’, ‘This is a Love Song’) and new (‘After Dark’, ‘Six Months in a Leaky Boat’) there’s no question of whether the band has or hasn’t improved since their last release. Instead of relying on Steele to carry every song with the occasional moment of brilliance from Leach, every member now brings something to the Little Birdy sound. If BigBigLove was the band coming of age, Hollywood looks set to be the sound of a band in full flight. Two thumbs up.