Live Review: Tash Sultana, Pierce Brothers, Willow Beats

You wouldn't normally see a crowd as relaxed as the one awaiting at the Fremantle Arts Centre anywhere, made all the more strange given it's a sold out show on a warm Friday night.

Maybe it's the early start or just wanting to soak up some sun while they have a prime chance, whatever it is, it didn't quite work for openers Willow Beats. Doing their best to amp the punters, it simply didn't strike. The energy even carried through to second supports the Pierce Brothers. Acoustic strikes and a home-grown enthusiasm certainly worked in their favour, they started aggressively at maximum pace that didn't drop. It quickly felt 'one trick' to put it bluntly and any attention they grasped was lost almost as fast. This was no discredit to the support acts themselves, they both gave it their all, but it was very clear who the crowd was there to see.

As soon as the lights dimmed around the grounds and the stage lit up, all three-thousand-odd people stood up in unison and moved as close to the stage as they could for the arrival of Tash Sultana.

Sultana has a knack for reading a crowd, likely from her years of busking, and it's a skill that worked to full force on this evening. Building a steady slow jam and weaving in layer after layer after layer, she began to hype the crowd before they even knew it.

Her performance was entrancing to watch, working with a mindset like that of a DJ, she takes her dense instrumentals and stretches out key moments to create a winsome sound that engages all that stand in awe.

Her handful of released tracks are more than enough to create a stellar two-hour performance with breakouts like Gemini, Jungle, and Murder To The Mind, whipping back and forth from samplers, drum pads, various instruments and, of course, her ethereal vocal work. Taking moments of Zeppelin-like ferocity and etching them into a Buckley-inspired whispering lyric, she pours every inch of herself into her performance. As she comments herself, "My first gig here was at Mojo's to three hundred people, now there's three and a half thousand here so thank you for telling your friends." That humility bleeds into everything she does on stage. Not only has she never left her busking style and heart, she's built on it to become her core, heart and soul, allowing a tight connection to her crowd.

Be it an intimate local bar, a capacity, large-scale setting or even a windy street sidewalk, Tash Sultana seems to only be able to perform wholeheartedly and flawlessly and the Fremantle crowd showed the utmost appreciation for that.