Live Review: Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, The Southern River Band, Fight Ibis

Friday nights are always kicked into full swing with a full crowd in attendance; even more so when Psychedelic Porn Crumpets bring their single tour to The Zoo.

Fight Ibis, the local four-piece groove machine take the stage first and don’t disappoint. With a modest crowd dancing around, it’s a brilliant warm-up set that still delivers something impressive.

Jumping on the stage with more energy than the crowd is Perth’s The Southern River Band. They can easily be described as a fresh cut of '80s classic rock. Even though they aren’t even headlining the night, the crowd engagement is scarily wild, and in the unairconditioned venue, the relatively small mosh has turned into an obscenely odorous sweat pit.

Jumping up to The Beastie Boys’ Intergalactic, the crowd roars with excitement for Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. Keeping things quiet for a moment as they tune their guitars, as they begin to shred into their first track things get crazy with crowdsurfing and moshing galore.

In the '60s we had walking bass guitar lines, in 2018, we have the Porn Crumpets shredding a walking guitar riff with Marmalade March. With every chorus we have a moment of pure chaos as the crowd break away into circles only to smash into each other again. The band give a special shout out to a fan and sing Happy Birthday for her. Even this small unplanned segment goes wild with the band giving the simple tune their all. And without further hesitation, they get into Surf’s Up and Buzz.

Throwing a big party with single Social Candy, the crowd rolls into a collective singing chorus and mimic the vocal delay effects of frontman Jack McEwan. The band briefly exit the stage, leaving their guitars and phase effects spewing out feedback, but within a hot minute, they’re welcomed back to close with Cornflake. Crowd energy is at an absolute peak, and even as they hold off with a big bridging riff during the song, the crowd psych themselves up for one final big circle pit. If someone didn’t at least get a bruise within the mosh, they lied about going to this incredible gig.