Live Review: Gold Fields, Phebe Starr

Ballarat boys Gold Fields hit up Capitol nightclub on Saturday night as part of their epic national tour promoting their Black Sun LP. The guys certainly meant business, with the stage set up more like a rave than a live band show, augmented by a huge lighting rig and several black lights that lit up the massive Black Sun tribal-looking logo that served as a backdrop. 

While the club was slowly filling, Phebe Starr came onstage in a futuristic sci-fi getup, complete with cape (of course) backed only by her synth player Michael Chow and her loop pedals. It was a shame there weren't more people around to catch what turned out to be a captivating performance that not only demonstrated Starr's talent as a vocalist, but also as a great songwriter. From set opener Everywhere to closer Alone With You, Starr absolutely killed it, even finding time to throw in a synthtastic minimalist version of The Cure's Let's Go to Bed. 

Not long after, the five shadowy figures of Gold Fields made their way onstage quickly. As the band launched into first song of the night, Thunder, lead singer Mark Robert Fuller announced, “It's fucking great to be back in Perth!” to the delight of the steadily growing crowd. Flattery will get you everywhere, obviously. Drummer Ryan D'Sylva and percussionist Rob Clifton dominated the set with their fierce polyrhythmic playing that synchronised with their impressive light show. A cover of Underworld's Born Slippy helped keep the pace and got the crowd singing along too. The guys then kicked things up a notch with one of their older songs The Woods with Luke Peldys pumping out a damn funky bass line. Singles Dark Again, Moves and Treehouse all got excellent responses but did lack a certain sense of immediacy compared to the studio versions. 

By this point it didn't matter though. The guys had the whole crowd going and by the time it came to a close there were a few members at the front of the pit looking particularly exhausted. Consider that a job well done.