Review: Cate Le Bon at The Naval Store
Cate Le Bon at The Naval Store
w/ Michael Spratt, No Bride
Thursday, May 28, 2026
Arrival Fest sure made an entrance in Freo this year. Upping the ante on 2025’s debut lineup, indie darlings Cate Le Bon and Wednesday played in the first week alone.
The Naval Store is an underutilised venue on the outer edges of Fremantle, and it’s great seeing it get more action. The festival itself is still experiencing teething problems, with sound levels needing a boost and limited to no food options, despite early start times at a venue not really close to any local vendors. But with warehouse vibes in abundance, there was no denying the atmosphere for this winter fest, which is quickly making itself a fixture on the WA arts calendar.
The programming of local support acts has been a highlight, and No Bride was no exception. The two-piece led by Hannah Pillinger’s intoxicating voice recalled Cocteau Twins via Caroline Polachek, particularly the latter’s days fronting indietronica outfit Chairlift. With a twin synth attack and no breaks between beats, the mood was supple, stylish and fresh.
Michael Spratt’s ‘Acknowledgement of Country’ was an inspired choice between bands, even if it made us question why this wasn’t billed as a Welcome to Country. Spratt is evidently a proud Aboriginal man, and his live percussion and didgeridoo playing came across as perfectly ceremonial and appropriately welcoming, putting us in touch with the ancient Walyalup lands around us.
Cate Le Bon and her five-piece band arrived to a stage and costumes that mirrored their latest album, Michelangelo Dying’s, plush artwork, and she proceeded to play nine of the record’s ten tracks, kicking off with Jerome. While this came at the expense of her urgent, older post-punk material, she did dip into the lush art-pop of 2022’s Pompeii and 2019’s Reward, the latter’s standout single Home to You getting the biggest cheer for its familiar xylophone riff.
These days Le Bon’s sound is like a perfectly orchestrated jazz band performing big room indie rock (think Julia Holter or Nilüfer Yanya). No sound or instrument was out of place even when the soundtrack was orchestrated by multiple saxophones duelling on the likes of Mother’s Mother’s Magazines and Body as a River. By the time keyboardist Paul Jones picked up a sax to be the night’s third saxophonist following Stephen “Sweet Baboo” Black and Euan Hinshelwood, they were showing off in the most virtuosic of ways.
Never afraid to be at the cutting edge of her own oeuvre, Le Bon (named as an homage to Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon) is a remarkable curator of her own setlists, reflecting her recent stints as a producer for artists ranging from St Vincent to Wilco. The way unreleased ballad Vermohebophobia fit so seamlessly into the mix to become one of the night’s highlights was particularly remarkable.
It meant that while early ‘hits’ in the set, like Daylight Matters and Is It Worth It (Happy Birthday)? stood out, the most memorable moments came with the near post-rock build of the set’s perfectly orchestrated crescendo.
I Know What’s Nice finished the main set (as it finishes Michelangelo Dying) in full-sounding style; Harbour emerged as perfect synthpop, all melodic and unexpectedly catchy, while another Pompeii track in Remembering Me closed out the encore quite exquisitely with one final roaring sax solo.
HARVEY RAE