Live Review: The Smith Street Band, Luca Brasi, Joelistics, Jess Locke Band

It was nice to see some female energy grace the stage when the Jess Locke Band opened the night. Plenty of people were cruising on in along with her lo-fi, indie sound. There was a touch of brooding, a lot of expression and sure tell signs there's some amazing talent coming out of this Melbourne-based act.

Throwing in some different style on the line-up was MC Joelistics, who had no problem showing punters his insane ability to pack his rhymes to great beats in a frenzy of spoken word, hip hop fusion.

Dubbed by Wagner as "the best band in Australia", Luca Brasi hit the stage with their fast-paced, thrill seeking tunes, proving punk rock will never be dead. Without a doubt their latest track doing the rounds, Anything Near Conviction, was the set's highlight, with crowdsurfers popping up and everyone on the dancefloor jumping with enthusiasm and singing along.

Will Wagner led The Smith Street Band in opening the show with the emotionally charged I Love Life, and the amount of emotion pouring from the singer in those first moments was incredible. The show rocked on with great tunes and a little something extra for Perth punters when Luca Brasi singer Tyler Richardson joined the stage for a song Wagner wrote about him while drinking beers late one night.

For a nice surprise to fans, The Smith Street Band launched into a new song they'd only played a handful of times on the live circuit, Death To The Lads. Wagner expressed the song was about when you're having a good time with friends and all of a sudden the 'lads' show up and ruin a good time for everyone.

It was raw and full of power as Wagner bellowed, but was ironically and abruptly interrupted when one punter decided to start throwing punches to the side of the stage. What ensued was a lot of frustration and swearing from Wagner who screamed at security to kick the guy out.

An excited, agreeable roar from the crowd was then diminished when Wagner continued on to say "I just fucking want to play one show without fucking idiots," and "You wonder why no fucking bands come to Perth." Heavy. The atmosphere dwindled and a lot of boos and moans were heard after that.

Once they were a few more songs deep and the crowd was getting back into it Wagner decided to bring the whole situation back up and lecture the crowd on gig etiquette: "For once in my life I want to play a fucking song to fucking good people," he continued, stating the only thing he 'd think about all night was someone tried to start a fight, and if there's always going to be people at shows causing trouble then the band will have to break up. There wasn't too much coming back from that and the crowd thinned out, with many people leaving the show after a few more songs.

But with the negatives there's always positives and the band smashing through their familiar favourites lit up the crowd. Don't Fuck With Our Dreams; Get High, See No One; and I Don't Wanna Die Anymore.

The entire band poured everything they had into the final encore of Young Drunk for those who stuck around for the end.