Review: Jessica Pratt at The Naval Store
Jessica Pratt at The Naval Store
w/ New Nausea, Nika Mo, Michael Spratt
Friday, May 30, 2025
This year’s inaugural Arrival Festival is bringing some much-welcomed heat to stave off the coming Perth cold spell, announcing its ‘arrival’ with an excellently curated mix of international and local acts playing out of several Freo locations. First off the mark for the festival’s ten-day stretch was much-beloved indie folk stalwart Jessica Pratt. She brought the heat in the most welcoming way—this was a beautiful, intimate gig that enveloped all in attendance like having a seat by a warm hearth.
The Naval Store in Fremantle hosted this among several Arrival events, and the 500-capacity venue—a heritage-listed warehouse built for the Australian navy in 1935—felt more cosy than its potential size would suggest. This was largely due to the simple but effective layout with seats positioned around the stage and standing areas and sparse tables arranged behind and to the sides. Capacity restrictions ensured that there was plenty of space and everyone got a great view in a gig that felt intimate enough that the audience could’ve sat on floor rugs and nothing would’ve felt amiss.
The night was bolstered by superb support acts. First up was Perth mainstay Albert Pritchard, AKA New Nausea. Pritchard has been around awhile, as part of Shit Narnia and as a solo artist with many singles and a 2020 album under his belt (along with a new one in the pipeline). The material is a lovingly Australian take on Americana-tinged indie folk, but his post-rock and ambient influences were more immediately evident here as Pritchard laid down some beautiful keyboard and Eno-esque synthesiser textures throughout. Highlights included the ambient builds of Continental Shelf and, closer, the Elliot Smith-tinged Say Anything. With deeply felt (and often a tad absurd in the best Aussie fashion) lyrics and music to match, New Nausea’s music and new album will be one to watch.
Nika Mo was next and had already established herself duetting in New Nausea’s set. Her voice was beautiful, and her music cut interesting new angles on the jazz/indie spectrum, such as the dramatic folky rhythms of Sympathy Laughs and the moody slow groove of highlight Purple Suburbia. It was not without humour either, as on Claremont, she made her feelings on the eponymous locale known in no uncertain terms.
Leading into Jessica Pratt was a Welcome to Country led by Michael Spratt. It was beautifully worded and full of good humour. Following this was a virtuoso performance on didgeridoo, with the intimate surrounds capturing the instrument excellently.
Jessica Pratt came on after a short wait, and she let the music do the talking. She has a voice that is instantly recognisable, moving between whisper and falsetto, as well as an occasional, unmistakable intonation that sounds otherworldly. It’s the kind of voice that could be used for nefarious (i.e., unbearably twee) ends, but instead Pratt’s music is both beautiful and haunting and helped by some fascinating songwriting that often compresses ten minutes’ worth of melodic ideas into sub-three-minute folk numbers. The unspoken fifth act of the night was the playlist between sets, and the acts featured—Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell and Lee Hazelwood—set the scene as influences on Pratt’s unique brand of mystical folk.
Pratt opened with arguably her best-ever song, World on a String. Perhaps she could’ve built to this track, but as an opener it was the perfect scene-setter. Her backing band were minimal but stellar, with more overt keyboard work than on record and some minimal but excellent interplay between Pratt’s elegantly simplistic acoustic strumming, all quick downstrokes, and secondary guitar. Most notable, of course, was her voice, which felt as though it was plucked straight from her records. The whispers, vibrato, vocal flourishes and falsetto swoops were all here in their full glory.
If there is a singular criticism, it’s that the track selection leant a bit too heavily on her latest two records, negating her first 2012 and 2016 efforts aside from the appearance of the Kate Bush-leaning Greycedes early on, a breezy rendition of Back, Baby, and On Your Own Love Again in the encore. It’s understandable, though, given the strength of Quiet Signs and Here in the Pitch (featured in our Top 24 of 2024 list), the former for its mood and the latter for its diverse songwriting and bossa nova flourishes, which many of the songs on the night adapted given the warm organ, conga and claves accompaniment.
In essence, the show was an exercise in bringing these beautiful and otherworldly tunes to life, and it somehow succeeded. Poly Blue was a bit sprightlier live and equally beautiful, with Pratt’s vocal jumps perfectly captured and closing with woodwind arpeggios. Get Your Head Out was playful and featured more prominent organ than on record. Better Hate is another favourite and sounded identical to the record live with its winding vocal explorations and excellent horn playing, which continued into Empires Never Know. By Hook or By Crook was a bossa nova-influenced number that saw the band stretching out ever so slightly towards the end.
The breezy nature of the initial tracks gave way to the atmospheric two-piece opener from Quiet Signs in Opening Night / As the World Turns, its simple piano figure underpinning Pratt’s sublime rendition of one of her moodiest pieces. Here My Love and This Time Around were exercises in minimalism, especially the latter, which hung on little more than voice and strums as the stage lights rung Pratt like a halo. It’s only a shame that Quiet Signs closer Aeroplane didn’t make the cut here. The romance of The Last Year and the affirming energy of Life Is brought the band back to bear. After a brief pause came the encore, and the set finished on Fare Thee Well, an underlooked beauty of a track that introduced a cool, woozy organ sound and brought things to a stellar close.
Jessica Pratt had the audience in the palm of her hand on a night not soon forgotten. Given the strength of the support acts and how well the venue worked, this bodes exciting things for the rest of Arrival festival, both this year and hopefully in years to come.
MATIJA ZIVKOVIC
Photos by Grace Sanders
