Live Review: Pearls, Sundays & Cybele, Scattered Purgatory, Power

The bill tonight is an exotic sandwich; a small sampling of what’s happening in music across the Southern hemisphere right now. Book-ending the line-up are Melbourne’s-own Power and Pearls, between them are Sundays & Cybele (Japan) and Scattered Purgatory (Taiwan). It’s an allotment of bands whose music is about as diverse as their places of origin. 

Power do justice to their name. Their set is a frenzied explosion. It’s loud and illegible, fast and impersonal, but vigorous and totally absorbing at the same time. Their set ends. Scattered Purgatory take the stage next and place The Tote in a prog-washed chokehold for the duration of their set. Power were rabid, Scattered Purgatory are broody. Heavy bass underlies ominous, distorted melodies that are carried for miles through their lengthy compositions. We couldn’t really hear the words during Power’s set, but in this one there’s simply no need for them.

Sundays & Cybele also have a bit of prog about them, but in a different way. Most of their set comprises songs from new album Gypsy House – an apt title for their brand of curiously psychedelic ponderings that, when played live, sounds much rawer, verging on vampiric. Much of the glittering dreamscape is replaced by fuzz and reverb. The frontman’s musings are clouded by the rest of the sound, but this isn’t necessarily a criticism. It’s psychedelic and a little bit spooky, a pretty dream buoyed by a tonne of bricks, and it’s intriguing. 

Then everything changes again. Yet another style of music is whisked in from the cold to replace the last. This time it’s saccharine glam thanks to Pearls, the headline act. There are two men and two women, all looking outrageously svelte whether due to vintage rags and pale makeup or bomber jackets and slicked-back hair. They start strong and stay there. The band’s singles Pretend You’re Mine and Big Shot ring throughout the packed-out venue, sounding tinnier than they do on tape but by no means messy. Hooks as sleek as their creators push the songs, which prove catchy whether or not you’re partial to their ‘80s-inspired arrangements.