Some of the best gigs you’ll see are the ones that slip under the radar. With the abundance of international touring acts (Roger Waters, Eric Clapton), massive one-day festivals (Big Day Out, Good Vibrations) coming to town and with the Perth International Arts Festival about to kick off, it wasn’t too surprising to see Deloris’ WA tour slip under the radar. New album Ten Lives has received favourable reviews across the board and depiste this being their first visit in three years, the Melbourne band drew a modest crowd for a Friday night at the Rosemount.

Openeing proceedings were Radarmaker, and after taking some time to get their set into gear, impressed the early crowd for a good half-hour. Heavy on reverb, amps up to 11 and all kinds of pedals surrounding the band members on stage, this four-piece put in the performance on the night. While most of their tunes are meandering instrumental numbers (think Mogwai, Godspeed! You Black Emperor), guitarist Wendi Graham and guitarist/bassist Noah Norton chip in with the occasional vocal to break up the intensity of the three-pronged guitar assault. But why? The best parts of this Radarmaker set all involved lots of feedback, schizophrenic time signature changes and a strong melodic undercurrent trapped somewhere in amongst it all. The highlight came as Trainer pulled out what looked like a screwdriver to extract some mind-bending sounds from his guitar midway through their set.

Following Radarmaker, Kill Teen Angst hit the stage with a very hard act to follow. And for the first three-quarters of their performance, they failed to come anywhere near the opening act. Early on in their set, the riffs crunch hard and the vocals have the intensity to match but the melody suffers as a result. Like Tucker B’s, their live sound develops a life of its own and the subtleties of their recorded material are often inaudible due to the storm of guitar noise. Nevertheless, in the closing minutes of their set they proved what can happen when they find that balance. Add to that a crazed punter joining the band on stage for some manic dancing and you have a spectacle you can’t resist.

Unlike their support acts, Deloris didn’t need to waste any time getting into performance mode. From the off, they put their all into their performance, and seemed unfazed by the small crowd. Rather than catch up on the three years since their last visit, they took the opportunity to play just about everything from Ten Lives, with All Your Salt and the minute long intro The Maw the only songs not getting an airing. Despite the shameless flogging of the new record, Deloris managed to put the set together in a way that made everything sound fresh and spontaneous. Opening track Everything Ever set the tone, building up gradually and though vocalist Marcus Teague sounded strained on a couple of notes, it sat in nicely as the guitars built up around it.

Xs for Eyes, Where We Already Live and the staccato guitars of Loup Garou launched the band’s set into full flight, but it was the middle bracket of songs that proved the highlight. Their performance of Birdcatcher Finds a Tail put its recorded counterpart to shame, eliminating the sparse, slightly hollow sounds of the recorded version. As the band ran straight into Coming Down the Mountain, Teague pulled up a megaphone for an alternate take on one of the album’s weaker tracks. As though that wasn’t enough to ignite the devoted few, The Unbroke Part of it, from 2004 album Fake Our Deaths drew the casual observers from the bar to the front of the stage, which lifted the band as they continued their performance.

As the end of the night approached, Teague’s voice found fine form in both the band’s rock songs as well as the quieter acoustic-driven tracks from Ten Lives. His bandmates exited the stage as he played one last tune solo, which, without the noise and confusion of a full-band setup, sounded, looked and felt like the lead singer putting his heart on display – something a $700 Roger Waters ticket would never get you.