Live Review: Holy Holy, Methyl Ethel

Holy Holy enchanted Bunbury with a show-stopping performance promoting their debut album, When The Storms Would Come.

The Prince Of Wales Hotel welcomed this unique Australian duo in an intimate venue as they continued their tour around Australia. The musical project that brings the award-winning singer-songwriter Timothy Carroll from Brisbane and Oscar Dawson from Melbourne attracted a small crowd. Nonetheless, the room was filled with great energy, as anticipated.

First up, attempting to warm up the crowd was Methyl Ethel, an indie-pop band from Perth that didn't seem to attract a large audience (or captivate the one they had). Nonetheless, their bassy, bedroom-pop sound was considerably atmospheric in their marginally short set.

Next up, Holy Holy graced the stage as the room filled up to see the diligent two alongside their talented band members. Carroll's powerhouse vocals immediately got the crowd feeding off their electric energy, along with drummer Ryan Strathie's powerful percussive rhythms and Dawson's dwelling lead guitar solos, which were mind blowing.

The band performed a number of songs containing a vast contrast in sound, one example being their first-ever single History: an immediate floor-filler with a long introduction that emphasised their instrumental talent. They further showed off one of their most famous songs, House Of Cards, which had a lot of the audience singing back the lyrics creating a more chilled atmosphere, with the main focus being on Carroll's echoey, smooth voice. The highlight of the night, however, was definitely the band's cover of Neil Young's Southern Man. The legendary Canadian singer seems to be a great influence on the band as they performed the song with ease, letting loose on the heavy guitar solos and percussive sound. Holy Holy then performed their latest single You Cannot Call For Love Like A Dog, which was fast paced with beaming energy, a great way to close the show.

It's safe to say Holy Holy are very talented instrumentalists. In fact, their guitar and percussion solos were the real crowd pleasers, as opposed to their more well-known songs, as they created an impeccable sonic maelstrom which was truly faultless. However, it is evident that there is still a lot of room for them to grow and really find their sound in the band's future, which, based on their performance tonight, seems fairly promising.