Live Review: Catcall - Oxford Art Factory

Sydney four-piece The Fabergettes offered up some fun retro pop to start off proceedings. Rattling through a kooky collection of originals and one cover, singer Nat Martin was a pleasure to watch with a big grin plastered across her face throughout the whole set.

Whilst waiting from Palms to take the stage, a sneaky peak into the Gallery Bar revealed an incredibly talented seven-piece, The Messengers, squeezed onto a tiny stage playing some great blues rock'n'roll to a jiggling crowd.

Back to the main gig and a hipster looking Palms took to the stage and their melodic, slightly bumpy indie pop and vocalist Al Grigg's big mop of hair drew comparisons with The Cure. The Vampire Weekend-sounding The Summer Is Done With Us prompted a big round of headbanging on stage and jumping around on the dancefloor.

A packed-out room welcomed Catcall to the stage for the finale of the night. Flanked by Al Grigg on guitar, Bec Allen from The Fabergettes on bass, Simon Parker from Lost Valentinos on drums and Andrew Elston (aka Toni Toni Lee) producing the sound, it was an all-star lineup.

Catcall looked very comfortable on stage as she belted out evocative dance pop like a smaller but equally powerful version of Beth Ditto. A range of tracks from her new album, The Warmest Place, made up most of the set including opener, Shoulda Been, the '80s-sounding Swimming Pool and the funky Art Star.

Big hitters of the night were the dreamily good pop number, Satellites, and new track, The World Is Ours, which got everyone jumping around and singing their hearts out. Disappointingly no encore followed the set, but those looking for a bit more music moved next door to hear Thieves finishing off and smash a $5 hotdog.