Last Saturday afternoon, WAMFest‘s Saturday Spectacular took over Perth streets to celebrate live music in a variety of venues that threw open their doors to the public for some unmissable free shows. One of the many artists on the bill, FOAM, take us through their experience and their own highlights from the event…
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Joel Martin: By 5:30pm, the sun had begun to settle the fuck down and the river of sweat I’d been swimming in all day had dwindled to a more tolerable puddle. Good timing too, as JOYS were kicking off their set in the Hen House Live room. I saw these guys at their EP launch a little while ago, they were real good then and they were real good today. Singer/guitarist Rleanne was contending with some kind of fluey/cold thing, but I’m not sure I would’ve noticed if she hadn’t brought it up. Killer voice. These dudes have a keen sense of melody and their songs are compelling and earnest. Prevailing pop vibe, but more than enough indie/emo/post-hardcore influence to keep it interesting.
Jackson Hawdon: I started heading across town to catch Bells Rapids over at The Boston, and stopped to grab some chinese food from Old Shanghai. This was a poor decision for a number of reasons, the most devastating of which being that I missed their set by a couple of minutes. Bummer. I’ve heard from reliable sources that this band is sick so help me make up for my tardiness by checking them out. On the plus side, we got this picture of me taking a picture of Jackson taking a picture of Jake from Hideous Sun Demon taking a picture of Jacob Diamond of ‘Jacob Diamond’ fame.
The Chlorines were up next there, so I stuck around. Had no idea what to expect, turns out they’re great. They’ve got this gothic, heavy western vibe that reminded me a little of Iceage and a little of Nick Cave. Super tight band, real interesting songs that ebb and flow beautifully, check em out. Went and caught up with Harley at the block party right after.
Harley Barnaby: Pow Negro are a band that, like Jacob Diamond’s naked butt, I’ve heard a lot about yet never seen. Much to my delight, catching my first Pow set amongst a swelling audience at the block party lived up to my bulging expectations. Jazzy arrangements played dirty with a bodacious vocal accompaniment that at times had me envisioning MC Ride. Just like aforementioned buttocks, right up my alley.
Joel: Jacob Diamond is a great pal and arguably an even better singer. Card-carrying ‘Best Male Vocalist’ in the state, I hear. This guy can write the hell out of a song and his band is made up of great players so how can you go wrong? You can’t, mate. I could only watch the first 10 minutes of his set this time around because I had to get running back over to Badlands.
Jackson: In the interest of full disclosure we should say that the dudes in Skullcave have been very good friends of ours for years now. Knowing this, let us tell you just how fucking great they are. They are so good. They make music that brings forth crushing dread and boundless joy. Their epic set closer runs for twenty or so minutes. Badlands feels like their home turf too, a band like this is built for an oversized PA operated by the best in town.
Joel: Badlands was without a doubt the most out of the way venue involved in the Saturday Spectacular, so it was great to see so many people coming out that way at this point in the night. Feeding off the energy in that room made our set a helluva lot more enjoyable. Big ups to Jay Bradner for doing a sick job on the desk, that room was sounding hot.
One of the best things about playing between Skullcave and Tangled Thoughts of Leaving is that by virtue of borrowed gear, my guitar rig ends up looking more like this:
The actual best thing is being there to watch these bands because holy hell, seriously man, my god. TTOL probably isn’t for everyone but if you don’t see the inherent value in a band that is so exploratory, so crushing, so technically proficient and defined then I dunno what I can really say to you, man. Shut up, probably. Without a doubt, one of the best acts going around.
Jackson: Pat Chow were the final act of the day and they ruled. That’s all I can say about them actually, because by this point in the night I was very high on vibes and very, very drunk on beers.
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Check FOAM out performing at The Bird in Northbridge this weekend on November 12th, supported by Kitchen People and Last Quokka!
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