Review: Ibibio Sound Machine at East Perth Power Station
Ibibio Sound Machine at East Perth Power Station
w/ Adrian Dzvuke
Sunday, February 9, 2025
Ibibio Sound Machine delivered a colourful and energetic performance that placed the cherry on top of an outstanding opening weekend of Perth Festival 2025’s residency at the East Perth Power Station. The Power Station, which has lain dormant since being decommissioned in 1981, has been transformed into Casa Musica for the festival, a stunning dual-stage venue tucked between the Swan River, the iconic art-deco building, and its exposed steel beam industrial exterior.
Before Ibibio unleashed their raw energy on the venue’s Main Stage, Perth-based R&B singer Adrian Dzvuke was picked to warm up the crowd. Dzvuke’s music draws from a multitude of influences, including that of his Zimbabwean background, which he and his band expertly showed off in a set that veered between uber soulful and out-and-out high-energy electronic bangers. The funky R&B of July was a mid-set standout, with Dzvuke’s vocals smooth and breathy, while the calypso-like auto-tuned falsetto of Enjoy allowed the singer to show off his front-person skills in getting the crowd to join in with the song’s boppy chorus. Set closer focus continued the good vibes as the slick, electronic beats, punctuated by Dzvuke’s vocals, had the crowd up and dancing.
With little gaps between sets, Ibibio Sound Machine took to the stage, and they continued the high energy that Dzvuke had left them. While it must be said that Ibibio are a band unlike any other, it is this unique fusion of afrobeat, funk, and post-punk that makes them so incredibly exciting and a massive coup for Perth Festival. Having started life in London in 2013, it was the group’s 2022 breakout album, Electricity, that really helped this sonic machine to pick up steam and reach new fans from all across the world.
On stage in Perth, the group’s frontwoman, Eno Williams, was an electric presence. Resplendent in a matching red patterned dress and headpiece, Williams remained in constant motion across the stage throughout the performance as she delivered her stunning vocals that mix the native Nigerian tongue of Ibibio with English. Near the top of the set, the singer announced, “We’re going to have a good night tonight,” and continued to make the audience feel a part of the performance throughout with her honest and upbeat crowd interactions.
Musically, the uptempo Fire, from their group’s most recent outing Pull The Rope, was exactly its namesake. The track merges 80s synths and horns with tribal rhythms, which Williams aided by her adoption of a talking drum on an extended rhythmically driven outro of the track. Elsewhere, Williams introduced set standout, Protection, as “a spiritual chant against evil,” which, with its repeated lyrics and mesh of krautrock, horns, and electronic beats, is perhaps the only way to sum up such an eclectic and gleefully fierce groover.
While Williams was the focal point of the show, her fellow players also starred on stage. In particular, the guitar mastery of Alfred Bannerman was absolutely stunning, while the energy and deft skill of drummer Joseph Amoako was magnanimous as he enabled the band to effortlessly move from afrobeat to soul to funk and back again.
The night ended spectacularly with the group unfurling their recent single, Pull The Rope, for their encore. The track’s thick slices of funk and unrelenting groove were so hypnotic that the hips of punters were still gyrating as they made their way back into the real world, away from the magical Festival playground of Casa Musica and its sound machines that Perth Festival has bestowed upon us this summer.
MICHAEL HOLLICK
Photos by Linda Dunjey
