Live Review: The Blackeyed Susans, The Holy Rollers

With the release of Close Your Eyes And See featuring their first new material since Shangri-La (2003), iconic act The Blackeyed Susans are currently in the midst of a national tour that, tonight, sees them back in their hometown of Perth. Following on from their sold out show the previous evening in Fremantle, an air of expectation hung over the sizeable crowd that had arrived early, eager to catch the local favourites.

First up for the evening, however, the crowd were treated to a rare performance from local legends, The Holy Rollers. A mainstay of the Perth music scene in the mid-'80s, this was their first appearance since reforming for a one-off performance at the State Of The Art Festival a couple of years ago. Featuring Greg Dear on guitar and vocals along with his sister Flick on drums, bassist Cliff Kent and guitarist Craig Chisholm, The Holy Rollers delivered what was essentially a greatest hits set of their classic '80s tunes such as Above The Law and Afraid, giving the audience a taste of what to expect when Dear returns to Badlands with his latest incarnation of The Beautiful Losers to launch their new album, Owl, 3 Jun. 

Following a brief break, The Blackeyed Susans made their way onto the stage for what proved to be a sublime performance. Opening up with I Asked My Mother and Lover Or The Loved, both from the new album, the band took their mesmerised audience on an aural journey that was highlighted, as always, by the powerfully smooth vocals of Rob Snarski and the pedal steel of Graham Lee as it wove effortlessly through the mix.

With Ocean Of You — the first song written by David McComb for Snarski to sing — proving an early favourite with the crowd, the band moved on with a set that highlighted the songs from the new release, notably I Don't Dance (Anymore) and The Shining Path which saw songwriter/bassist Phil Kakulas enthralling the audience with a story of where the song came from, a line he'd read in a newspaper about a young car accident victim waking from a coma and writing "Cars are scary and God is scary".

"Is anyone in the room suffering great heartache?" asks Snarski before adding "It could be a good time to leave the room", leading the band into the melancholic Not Quite The Same, another highlight of the night. 

The set continued on with the band going back to some of their classic older material. Come Ride With Me and Glory, Glory were followed by Smokin' Johnny Cash, much to the delight of the audience, before they finished off with another new track, the haunting Dream On.

They were quickly back on stage for what proved to be two encores with the first being highlighted by a cover of Leonard Cohen's Memories introduced by guitarist JP Shilo's story of meeting him backstage in 2009. The second encore saw them play Blue Skies, Blue Sea before making their way off stage for the final time.