Crowd surfers in a nightclub? Since when? A mosh pit on its own is a rare thing in a venue such as Club Capitol, with a holding capacity of a little over a thousand. Thanks to Gyroscope (who cleared out the 2006 WAMi Awards with the Most Popular Album, Most Popular Live Act and Best Rock Act awards) this rare sight became a reality for many patrons at the Capitol/Amplifier WAMI event on Friday night.

As one of the many WAMi Festival shows on this weekend, the Capitol and Amplifier opened doors to one another for a multi-stage event, all under one roof. The two bars played host to some of Perth’s best rock acts including The Silents, The Volcanics, Red Jezebel and the long time no see rockers from Gyroscope.

The night drew some pretty big crowds of all sorts, making it almost impossible to get to the bar. As one band ended, the next band would start up in the other bar creating a great migration of punters through the bottleneck between the two stages.

The night kicked off with Faith in Plastics in the Capitol, then Campus Band winners The Dee Dee Dums next door. Continuing on were New Rules for Boats, whose performance came just as the night really started to get going. Dom Mariani, who played with The Stems at the WAMi Awards earlier in the week, performed with The Majestic Kelp on the Amplifier stage and proved that while The Stems still have it, he’s gone on to achieve a fair bit since. But it isn’t until The Silents began that things got a bit hectic - but the rock concert atmosphere wons over, with friendly smiles amidst the pushing and shoving.

The Silents are just one of the Perth bands that are really making big noise not only here, but in the eastern states as well. The psychedelic rock band are one of the many Perth bands making a presence in Australia, featuring as house band on Rove Live and touring Australia the east coast with The Vines. At this gig, they rose to the occasion, playing a good selection of crowd favourites as well as tracks from their upcoming album release.

After a raucous performance from The Volcanics, Red Jezebel took the Capitol stage by storm, performing their best known songs See Through Dress and You’re Making Me Nervous. Leaving with their best known hit Devil’s Advocate, the band’s fans were out in force, singing along as the set drew to a close. Though The Fuzz were playing at Amplifier, most of the crowd stayed put for the 20-minute wait after Red Jezebel, jockeying for prime viewing positions for Gyroscope.

To see two crowd surfers at once is quite a spectacle but not nearly enough to stop one from singing along with Gyroscope’s easy sing-along punk-slash-emo-slash-pop songs. Their 45-minute set was incredibly entertaining with lead vocalist Daniel Sanders resting on the hands of his fans, who responded to his every move. The four-piece use every minute on stage to show the crowds why they’ve been one of the hottest bands in WA for so long now. They play tracks from 2004 debut Sound Shattering Sound and the 2005 follow-up Are You Involved? as well as going through some of the band’s non-album material. Though their sound has evolved over the years, everything comes together when the band get together on stage, and all four members put in a blistering performance that justifies their place at the top of the tree.