Live Review: The Gooch Palms, Trash House, Night Signals

Night Signals were first on The Bird's list. Built from bits and pieces of other Perth acts (including SMRTS), they warmed things up. Although it was scuzz-punk act Gooch Palm's first Perth show with their debut album, Natalie Popovic of Dianas debuted her new act Trash House as well, a duo with a dude called Aden on guitar and Natalie on drums. Their Unearthed page has one track on it called Mountain; it's got two 4/5s from triple j reviewers and I'm pretty sure they dropped it live and it was really fucking good (sorry, it was their debut and all). Hopefully more Dianas content will be arriving soon too, but between Dianas and Trash House we're facing a win/win.

Leroy Macqueen is a bogan David Bowie; tall, skinny, omnisexual with a blond/ranga mullet, he's Newcastle's very own Thin White Duke. He also has a thing about his balls, which you could probably figure out from the act's name, The Gooch Palms. About ten minutes into their set, Macqueen lost his flesh-tight biker pants. He was wearing a black leather g-banger with a crotchpiece the size of a wallet; from said crotchpiece, Macqueen liberated his testes for the crowd's titillation. Kat Friend, the duo's drummer and backing vocalist, was cool with it. I don't even know if it's legal to get your balls out at a show but there weren't many people in the crowd and this one bogan loved it, so if it ain't broke don't fix it.

As for Gooch's set, the duo slung out their debut Novo's in its entirety. Flavoured by Eddie Current Suppression Ring, Novo's touches on the themes of suburban alienation that Smith Street Band howl about, but with relish – onstage with his nuts hanging out, MacQueen seemed invincible, and although The Bird was pretty empty for the purposes of his on-stage morale he could have been headlining Laneway. On that note, The Gooch Palms should play Laneway; Novo's live went bang. Hunter St Mall mashed into You; Don't Cry and triple j favourite We Get By were also fearlessly executed. Macqueen and Friend then dropped a cover of Cheap Trick's Dream Police because they just wanted to, right then and there, apparently. Macqueen was a spindly muppet pulled by the strings of crowd adulation. Appropriately, The Gooch pair finished with the eponymous Novo's, arguably the best song from their record. Macqueen's pants went back on and he and Friend hung out signing merch.