It's as though God is a folk rock fan, because the weather presented to us tonight is the perfect for the line-up at The Triffid. Under a clear, balmy sky punters sip drinks in the outdoor beer garden in the lead-up to Mia Dyson taking the stage.

Dyson's larger than life voice seems too big to play support to anyone, but the big crowd isn't complaining as she works through some of the immersive cuts off latest album Idyllwild.

As the sold-out crowd finds their places underneath the band room's imposing dome roof, The Waifs mosey up onto the stage. It doesn't take very long into the first number before every slight nuance of vocalist Vikki Thorn's breathy Australian twang has the crowd captivated. The Western Australian outfit are no strangers to their home country's stages and even on this, the first date of their Beautiful You tour, they're sounding like a perfectly synchronised machine and the crowd is right there with them.

Even more so when The Waifs' hit London Still second up in the set. It's a gutsy move, especially considering the emphasis the band places on the number — as lilting notes ring out from Thorn's harmonica the crowd joins Donna Simpson on the refrain and goes positively wild upon the song's culmination. Well, as wild as a weeknight crowd might be inclined to go when they've had a couple of chardys in them and they're listening to The Waifs.

As the set goes on, the five-piece pepper their set with their mid-2000s hits that inspire the crowd to promote themselves to the position of co-vocalist. And even though it's the familiarity of cuts from the Up All Night album — which at this point are starting to feel like your favourite old T-shirt — that get the warmest reception, the appeal of the entire set runs deep.

What's most engaging is watching how The Waifs are able to showcase the depth and diversity lurking underneath their deceptively simple folk rock. Whether it's Josh Cunningham switching from an acoustic over to an electric guitar so a lick will pack a bit more of a punch or the variety of hand percussion whichever singer is doing back-ups will sprinkle over a given song, the band's passion for their craft is apparent. It's this passion that makes cuts from the new record like Dark Highway and the title track Beautiful You — which Simpson prefaces with a lament about the prevalence of methamphetamine that attracts a sombre round of claps from the audience — hold their own next to emotionally lived-in cuts from their back catalogue. And it's the power of these new songs that indicate that The Waifs are going to be selling out shows for years to come.