Live Review: Swan Showcase & WAM Opening Party

It’s been a hectic week in the lead up to the WAM Festival kicking off, and came to fruition yesterday afternoon and into the evening.

The Singapore WA Music Exchange eased punters into the evening as they relished after-work beers at Universal Bar, and in its second instalment, the bands truly laid claim to being amongst Singapore’s finest. 

Indie-rocker iNCH has opened for the likes of Katy Perry and Vampire weekend in the past, and her performance, accompanied by a full backing band, oozed confidence and enthusiasm. Her voice was the highlight of the performance though – she’s got some amazing power in her vocal delivery, and judging by the crowd’s reaction, they’ve scored a heap of new fans. The Pinholes were great entertainment value: Donned in matching black jackets and orange shirts, and wearing shades the entire time, the trio delivered a fun and funky performance that resonated well with the loose audience members.

Over the Bakery at 7pm, and FAIT turned up the noise with an intense and atmospheric instrumental rock performance, complete with artsy black-and-white images on a backdrop behind them.

Hideous Sun Demon (pictured left) built off their predecessor’s momentum with the performance of the evening — vocalist Vin Buchanan-Simpson was in top form, throwing himself all over the stage and winning people over with his theatrical vocal delivery and awesome guitar riffs.

Looking around the room, it was great to see so many industry people from the east side and overseas nodding in approval of the band’s output – they need to remember we’ve got some real cool shit over here. The ever-consistent Pat Chow procured a strong gut-busting rock performance, understandably chuffed by their WAM nomination for ‘2014 Breakthrough Artist’, before Tired Lion continued the trend with some wonderfully surging grunge-rock riffs, backed by a brilliant-as-always vocal performance by Sophie Hopes.

Scalphunter frontman Steve Knoth (pictured below right) was all about the hugs throughout the evening, and there was plenty of it throughout their performance, as the denim-clad vocalist jumped off the stage and offered the mic to punters one simultaneously giving big, one-armed hugs.

A fair chunk of crowd decided to call it a night after that — a shame, as Usurper Of Modern Medicine are made for late night shifts and thrived in their natural timeslot, offering heavy drones one minute and intricate melodies the next.

Mt. Mountain played out the evening shortly after midnight, winding the last few punters down with their hypnotic blend of winding, psychedelic drone jams.

It was a fantastic evening for WA music and the best thing is, we’ve still got two days of it to come.