Live Review: Caravãna Sun, The Weapon Is Sound, Blue Child

Stormy weather, it seems has not quite finished with us here in Perth, and the roads on Sunday night were slippery, wet, cold and sparsely occupied. Although at Mojo’s in North Freo, it seemed those absentees had congregated in a mass of steaming, sweating and gyrating bodies. As soon as you walked into the joint it hit you; the kind of warmth that only a really grooving gig gives off.  

First on the bill was Blue Child, playing a humble set of his own brand of blues and folk style music; just him and his guitar. 

Blue Child’s laid-back winter warmer gave way to the delightful kosmic soundscapes of The Weapon Is Sound, whose hard-hitting dub reggae kicked things along, making the venue’s foundations begin to shake a little bit. Finishing up with a phenomenal version of Bob Marley’s Exodus, The Weapon’s set damn near outshone the headliners.  
 
Fresh off the back of an astounding European tour (their third, no less); performing the continent over, one would think they would be weary, but the boys from Caravãna Sun were anything but.  The delivery of new material was clearly a primary objective with the chaps, beginning with Give Me Grace, and they made sure that their old friend Fremantle heard the best of it. Perhaps it was all the relaxation and beers and the previous days in Broome; the beginning of their set was loose and insouciant.

Hitting their stride early on in the piece, Caravãna Sun’s syncopated bass-lines (delivered by an incredibly charismatic Ant Beard), heavy ska romps and ethereal reprises carried the remainder of the night effortlessly. Trilby-wearing trumpet-extraordinaire Dilla resounded lip-blistering lines from his paisley patterned horn, taking the special liberty afforded to him by his wireless mic to wander through crowed, around the back of the room, to wind up sitting on the bar playing a solo. After his meander, the effervescent horn player then got everyone down on the ground (making sure to tell TheMusic’s reviewer off for not joining in fast enough!), before a breaking into another romp.  
 
After an extended one-song encore, the lights in the venue were sadly illuminated, reminding everyone that the end of the night was nigh, but it was worth noting just how fogged up the windows were looking out onto the dreary stormed-battered streets. It wasn’t cold in the light of the Caravãna Sun, that was for sure.