Live Review: Barn Owl, Haco, Ourobonic Plague

Midnight lurker Nick “Ourobonic Plague” Sweepah certainly knows how to move in mysterious ways, producing burbling, sinister music and turning up on bills he's not even listed on. Drafted in to replace Speak Percussion, he provided a handy demonstration to the international dignitaries of the peculiar talents Perth has crawling up through its cracks.

As he uttered droning, heavily-processed words – something like an absinthe-soaked Darth Vader reading Edgar Allan Poe – his diseased-sounding laptop emitted industrial soundscapes, with low end frequencies so substantial he could've been trying to execute controlled demolitions.

With tables and chairs arranged around the front of the stage, The Bakery seemed out to lure a more sophisticated, wine quaffing crowd, perhaps as a mark of esteem for the class act that was Haco.

Alternatively singing songs in English and Japanese from her criminally underexposed Forever And Ever album, she controlled not only hypnotic undulating waves from her laptop and various vocal effectors but also the audience with her entrancing stage presence. Occasionally she would cast her left hand while singing, as if to shape the reality of the song from the air itself.

When it came to surprises though, Barn Owl were holding the trump card. A brand new set of unrecorded music as promised? Check. Overwhelmingly loud tones you can not only hear but feel? Present. But no (gasp!) guitars – the instrument they're primarily associated with.

Certainly their latest album V was bathed in swirling electronics, but I don't think anyone expected them to go the whole silicone hog. In a continuous, all instrumental set, they mostly appeared to be playing two mixing desks, although they were obscured by so many sprouting multi-coloured leads, they might've been playing psychedelic porcupines for all I could tell. Given that they're from San Francisco, I suppose anything's possible.

The lack of six strings seemed to disappoint some who drifted away before the end; a shame given the densely layered drones that felt totally massive yet somehow spacious. Perhaps on this occasion Barn Owl were too unpredictable, even for some of their fans, but it certainly was a crossroads event for a band continually searching for new ground to break.