Live Review: Jinja Safari, 44th Sunset, Bedouin Sea

With their official debut album hitting the shelves less than ten days earlier, the anticipation leading up to the Perth leg of Jinja Safari's nationwide tour promoting the album's release was reaching hysterical levels. By the time Bedouin Sea took to the stage, the room was completely packed out; a very rare feat for an opening band, but hardly surprising considering the fast-growing popularity of the locals. The five-piece's folkish indie tunes were lapped up eagerly, however, the standout of the set was easily their final song and most popular tune, Drunken Kings (And Shiny Things), which had everybody in the room bouncing along.

Half an hour flew by before 44th Sunset rejuvenated the party vibe. Having toured alongside Jinja as the main support band on this tour, the group were euphoric in front of their home crowd, smashing out a catalogue of sweetly contagious indie pop tunes. Vocalist Nik Thompson was in fine form as his usual eccentric self, writhing around on stage between randomly picking up his guitar to strum a few brash chords, while keyboardist and vocalist Jess Clancy took the edge off with some stellar backup tones. Of course, by the time the band neared the end of the set and began to play Caesar, a heavily rotated tune on the j-waves, not a single crowd member was standing still.

The room was close to bursting as Jinja Safari took up the reins on stage, everyone desperately trying to crane their necks to get themselves in the best viewable position. Having seen the band play every single time they've trekked to Perth since they supported Boy & Bear in early 2011, this reviewer expected nothing less than a brilliant performance from the group, and luckily they didn't disappoint. Looking extremely cheery and rearing to get straight into it, the band kicked things off with an old favourite in Hiccups and subsequently had the crowd singing along from the outset. From there they jumped back and forth between new songs from their debut release, including big hit Toothless Grin and recent single Plagiarist, of which a surprising number of people already knew the lyrics, and classics from their early days such as Peter Pan and Stepping Stones. Pepa Knight spent the majority of his time hurling himself into the air with the support of his keyboard, and it's always a treat to see Alister Roach smash the absolute shit out of those bongos. They ended the set with what is still the biggest song in their catalogue, Mermaids, and everybody joined in with the chorusing of “oh-oh-whoaaaa-oh-oh”, the night closing on the highest of highs, leaving widespread grins on everyone's' faces. All in all, things couldn't have gone better for the group's album launch show, and with so many fantastic songs to sing and dance to we hope this release is just one of many more to come.