Live Review: The Waifs, Lucy Peach

Lucy Peach, together with bandmate Tara John, were warmly welcomed to the stage by an eager crowd. Their excitement at the opportunity to open for one of Australia's most beloved folk bands was evident on their bright, beaming faces. Beautiful acoustic songs full of determination and individuality wrapped in harmonies that sounded like they'd been perfected over a number of years earned the girls instant adoration. 

At this stage in their career, there's no more befitting a venue for The Waifs' signature Australiana sound than the Perth Concert Hall. The Albany trio have made a spectacle of themselves at the PCH before, and last night's show celebrating their most recent release Ironbark — not to mention their 25th anniversary — was a stunning performance that will undoubtedly be remembered among their best. The album boasting "25 songs recorded in one fantastic session at Josh [Cunningham]'s house in southern NSW" is the band's gift to their most loyal fans.

Lighthouse and London Still were first cabs off the rank before select cuts from Ironbark were played for the first time on their expansive nationwide tour, of which Perth marks the first stop. Sisters Donna Simpson and Vikki Thorn gave the crowd a little insight into the clumsy rehearsals for the newer tracks — neither of them had been able to remember their individual parts of the harmonies and had to resort to downloading the album to check because, of course, nobody in the band had it on them.

One of the warmer parts of the evening (that wasn't the god-awful humidity creeping in from outside) came when the trio each took a seat in the middle of the stage and waxed nostalgic over their adventurous beginnings, from the sisters embarking on an impromptu road trip around Australia and finding Josh Cunningham on the way in Broome, to Thorn and Cunningham being talked into helping a smooth criminal take his car back to Perth... from the middle of the Nullarbor.

The journey came full circle when the old classics — among them, Fisherman's Daughter, Bridal Train AND Crazy Train — just about brought the house down, but Simpson dotingly informed the crowd that although they'd love to stay and play for hours longer, there were babysitters that needed relieving of their duties. But, being the free-spirited selves that they are, they'll be sure to drift through town again soon.