Following their four WAM nominations, Perth’s Rainy Day Women returned home from a national tour to launch their latest single “Ain’t It Time?” at Perth’s Amplifier Bar. Completing the bill were fellow locals PUMBA, Our Man In Berlin and 44th Sunset.
Opening proceedings were PUMBA, playing only their second ever show. Not that you would know it from their performance. Though featuring a collection of musos from other local bands, including Rainy Day Women alumni Chris Chen and The Brow Horn Orchestra’s Nicholas Owen, this is a band with plenty of experience. Overall it was a great set – upbeat, entertaining and with a healthy dose of self-deprecation thrown in too.
Our Man In Berlin, the evening’s second band, are fast becoming one of my favourite local acts. Overall it was a good performance from the band, there were a few technical hiccups, but it was nothing too major and didn’t really cause much disruption or hinder my enjoyment of the set. For the most part it was an enjoyably languid set, packed full of new material, including a soon to be released single. The highlight of the set was “Temaze” from their most recent EP, a striking rendition of what is an absolute beauty of a track.
44th Sunset were a bit of an unknown quantity for me, and to be honest I wasn’t quite sure what I was expecting, but what followed wasn’t it. It was a thoroughly entertaining upbeat performance, which was largely down to the efforts of frontman Nik Thompson, who demands your attention, as he flings himself about the stage. There were a few technical difficulties, notably a guitar that decided to stop work, but again whilst no doubt frustrating for the band, didn’t detract from the enjoyment all that much.
By the end of their first song, it was clear that Rainy Day Women have a knack for writing great, upbeat, hook-laden indie rock. This is a band that would undoubtedly be at home on a sun-kissed festival stage. By the time they took to the stage, the venue had filled up considerably.
The band clearly were taking great enjoyment from being on stage in front of a home crowd, and fed more and more off the crowd’s energy as the set progressed. With singles “Friends”, “Runaway” and latest single “Ain’t It Time” getting a great reception from the audience.
My only disappointment was the set seemed to be overly too quickly, no sooner had they started, the band were making their way off the stage. Though this is a band I’m sure I’ll be hearing much more from in the future.
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