Live Review: Joni In The Moon, Felicity Groom, Rabbit Island, Racoo Charles with the Moke Folk

Hopping straight off a party bus from Freo, opening act Racoo Charles with the Moke Folk kicked off Friday night’s single launch for Joni In The Moon’s new song Tarantella, playing to only a very small handful of punters. With their feet firmly planted in the rootsy-folk scene, with a special appearance from a banjolele (always makes for a good time) — Charles led the band through a relaxed set that started the night off well.

Two-piece Rabbit Island were up next, enthralling the slowly-swelling audience with a blend of ethereal, weird and wonderful tunes that seemed to go on forever… but in a good way. They really got in the zone with this set, and it was hard to do much but stare into space and get lost in your own thoughts to a soundtrack such as this.

Taking it up a notch was Felicity Groom, who seemed to channel the aural focus of the previous set and flip it on its head into pure indie-pop goodness — and for the first time of the night, the audience started to put their dancing shoes on. It was a change of pace that was needed at this point in time, and sadly Groom’s set felt as though it had been cut short — it was obvious that nobody wanted it to end.

However, everyone quickly recovered when the stars of the night, Joni In The Moon took to the stage. Starting with a sneak peek at the brand new video clip for the new single Tarantella, this set the scene for a cracker of a night. This new song is brilliant — for anyone who hasn’t heard it, go and listen to it. Now.

Her song Woman On Fire was an intense and powerful one, her voice dripping with the emotion of the autobiographical nature of the song, and left spines tingling. The single of the night Tarantella also featured, translating fantastically into a live setting and had everyone in the room grooving along to the earworm of a chorus. Joni’s soaring vocals were effortless and left everyone in a state of awe at her versatility. She ended with the title track from last year’s release, Sorrow Trees, before winding up the night and jumping back on the party bus bound for Fremantle.