Saturday night at Amps was more of a celebration of Perth’s astounding indie scene then a headline gig. And it was presented brilliantly by four of the best going around.
The evening was set off with a rollicking, kick-drum heavy instrumental introduction from Eye Spy. Rather the odd band out on the bill, but still falling under the broad Perth indie banner, Eye Spy provided a heavier less poppy set, although still managed to get the rather small early crowd moving, dancing and enjoying themselves. Eye Spy live are a bit like a hotted up Hoopers Store hyped up on NOFX and hence provided a strong set of guitar driven rock. They moved through a reduced set of mainly newer tracks, newie Shuffle was a particular highlight and provided great crowd entertainment, half a dozen punters particularly enjoying it on the dance floor. A band consisting of three mates clearly having a lot of fun it was great to see and really established the vibe for the rest of the night.
Next up The Preytells band, who last night thankfully seemed to shake off the Dandy Warhols mimicking that has been souring some of their recent sets. Instead they provided a warm and very polite set of pure indie pop. Moving between one smooth song to another the set featured the regular singles Don’t Leave Me Alone and Could I Change Your Mind which, despite clearly influenced by indie greats such as the Dandies and Shins, are the intriguing sound of the Preytells. The highlight for this reviewer was So Much Better a sweet rolling tune featuring engrossing synth and rolling harmonious guitar strumming. In all a thoroughly enjoyable, and extremely friendly set, and the coolest glasses in the scene.
Despite an admitted bias for Institut Polaire, due partly to not having enough fingers and toes to count the amount of times I’ve seen them, the septuplet provided yet another lovable set of Perth indie pop greatness. The combination of America and Mamonaku proceeding the title track from the forthcoming Popfrenzy EP The Flaura and the Fauna Are Too Closely Allied had the large crowd excited and moving early on in the set to the infectious beats and intricately textured layers of trumpet, violin, keys, bass and guitars. The only remotely critical point from the set was the predictable set list, although this was more then made up for by the recently rare inclusion of their fantastic and infinitely better cover of Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. By the time they whipped out single City Walls six tracks in there was not one straight face, or non-tapping foot in the entire venue. It’s pretty clear Perth hearts IP.
A decent crowd stuck around to see the highlight of the evening, The Autumn Isles. Despite the noisy and unappreciative Amps after 12 crowd imposing, the majority of the audience visibly enjoyed a super set from one of Perth’s premier indie pop artists. This reviewer certainly did! The Autumn Isles have really come together as a band of late following some band member swapping around, but last night has got to be one of their best sets ever. Beautiful mixtures of synth and percussion effects combined with Alex Arpinos’ inspired and immediately catchy sing-along lyrics featured throughout, in particular the memorable Beautiful Pantomime, If Your Love is Blind and Murky Water early on. All the gems from their A Beautiful Pantomime EP featured, the highlight a lingering and wonderfully fleshed out version of It’s Been a While which was extremely impressive and well received at the close of the set. A wonderful end to another night of the Perth indie pop speciality.
