Live Review: Grace, Mid Ayr

The sets of Perth’s headliner Grace and Brisbane support Mid Ayr run at a funny parallel tonight. Both acts are situated within a dreamy musical landscape, evoking immersive, pretty atmospheres, with some sharper compositional edges in later songs. They are both, in a sense, departures too.

Mid Ayr is the project of Hugh Middleton, and tonight is their first outing in band mode. Middleton is no stranger to the stage though, having played guitar with The Trouble With Templeton for the last few years. His own music is not as direct or anthemic, instead taking cues from Radiohead and opting for a darker sound. The songs are varied and show a promising dynamic range, opening with a gentle guitar-led number that lets delayed falsetto notes ring out. Each track then shows a little more teeth, with the second last song building on guitar feedback to a raucous end that has drummer Zac Moynihan thrashing his ‘90s-era hair with every drum hit. Their shiniest song, My Mayhem, closes the set, body percussion underscoring the rapid-fire, stream-of-consciousness lyrics and the winding, likeable chorus melody.

The singular title of Grace represents a project-based approach for the music once released under lead singer’s full name Grace Woodroofe. A bluesy singer-songwriter in years past, at 16 she was thrust into the industry with help from Heath Ledger, making friends with Ben Harper, who would end up producing her debut, along the way. Now 23, she’s evolving her sound, working with Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio), Sam Spiegel (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and Dann Hume (Alpine) on her forth-coming EP, and recently supported alt-J.

Smoky and deep, Woodroofe’s voice immediately grabs hold of the room. The first half of the show smoulders along, with comparisons to Portishead not out of place. The band is tight and the drummer especially is full of energy and power, which is necessary to keep the intensity of the slower songs driving. Their performance is assured, though the songs themselves start to feel a little anonymous, morphing together in a beautifully textured haze. This is in part due to the vocal, which is striking at first, but clouds any distinctive melody or lyric.

The band is strongest in the final few songs, where they push at song structures and show a bit more personality, with wilder instrumental breaks, and clearer lyrical ideas. The songs where Woodroofe picks up her guitar communicate the most feeling and give her voice a wider range and colour. Single, Pluto, is well-written, but also feels a little more calculated and doesn’t hold the same magnetism of the previous two songs. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful night of hypnotic sounds from two songwriters with bright futures ahead.