Live Review: Mt Mountain, SpaceManAntics, Leafy Suburbs

PS Art Space hosted Neon Sunset, a night curated by RTRFM’s music director Adam Christou. Running as part of the City of Fremantle’s Hidden Treasures festival, the night was an interesting glimpse into the current state of the local Perth music scene, with performances from three diverse and incredibly talented acts.

Lyndon Blue (Seams, Solar Barge) kicked off the night with a performance under his Leafy Suburbs alias. The set was a mixture of broken beats, squelching synth lines, manipulated vocal loops and field recordings. The combination of sequenced and live instrumentation gave the whole set a naturalistic feel, and warmth was added through the use of analogue guitar pedals. This was electronica more for chin stokers than dancers.

SpaceManAntics were up next. Psych-rock really does seem to be the next big sound coming out of Perth, and this five-piece really does have that sound locked down nice and tight. Hot on the heels of their latest 7” release, Katzenjammer, this was the band that definitely got the biggest reaction from the crowd, which was drawn into a dancing frenzy by the sound coming from the impressive array of pedals and lush analogue synths. This caught the band and the crowd in a feedback loop of energy, feeding off one another. With each song, the crowd danced harder and the band played louder. It really was an impressive sight to see.

The few lights that had lit the stage were turned off, and the final act, Mt Mountain, had only the flickering of the projector while being bathed in a haze from the smoke machine. A slow dirge-like sound built into a hypnotic stoned groove and finally into soaring flanged guitars. At times the band wandered into almost post-rock territory, especially when, in a break between songs, they played some reverb-drenched spoken word samples. Easily our favourite act for the evening, either due to the slower style of music, or the late set time; the crowd however, although appreciating them, didn’t exhibit the same visceral reaction as they did with SpaceManAntics.