Review: Sarah McLeod and Dallas Frasca at Mojos Bar

Sarah McLeod and Dallas Frasca at Mojos Bar
Saturday, March 7, 2026

When Dallas Frasca and Sarah McLeod brought their Green Electric Tour to Mojos in North Fremantle last night, it was a masterclass on many levels.

Featuring two of the leading forces in Australian rock music, the venture was a showcase for sustainable touring. In addition to teaming up with Green Music Australia to raise money and awareness in its efforts to foster a greener world, the duo scrutinised their own environmental footprints. From offering a variety of recycled merchandise and ensuring the catering was meat-free to staying in eco-certified accommodation and employing sustainable travel routes, Frasca and McLeod led by example.

Not that this should have come as a surprise, as the duo have long paved the way in their respective careers. After gaining national recognition by winning triple j’s 2006 Light Your Fuse competition, Dallas Frasca has gone on to release four albums, receive both ARIA and Australian Women in Music awards, and share a stage with everybody from Midnight Oil to B.B. King. Frasca has carved out a career via high energy and thunderous rock performances delivered by her blistering guitar work and powerhouse vocals.

Through her work with the platinum-selling The Superjesus, Sarah McLeod is a three-time ARIA winner who, in 2005, released her first Top 40 album and single, Beauty Was a Tiger and Private School Kid. McLeod has subsequently released a further three solo albums, her last coming out in 2017 with Rocky’s Diner. This year, McLeod teamed up with Frasca for a new single, Til It’s Gone, a raucous dystopian anthem that serves as both a plea for environmental action and the catalyst for the current tour.

Not only was the evening a crusade for sustainability and environmental awareness, but it also presented a colloquium for how to execute guitar-driven rock music with economy, style, and grit. Accompanied by drummer Josh Barber, Frasca got her set of gritty, blues-drenched rock underway by leading off with Wasting Time from her 2016 EP Dirt Buzz and Anything Left to Wonder from her 2012 New York City-recorded album Sound Painter.

After her potent start, Dallas Frasca retired her electric guitar for River Queen. An acoustic-driven power ballad, the song was as subdued as Frasca’s set got. Frasca drew upon her Fremantle connections for her next song, Let it Rain. Written with Red Jezebel’s Paul Wood during one of Kav Temperley’s famed Fremantle creative think-tanks and subsequently recorded for her 2024 album Force of Nature, the song was a growling rock and roll anthem that showcased Frasca’s big booming voice. After raffling off Led Zeppelin covers, Frasca ultimately settled upon Immigrant Song before defiantly closing out her set with All My Love.

After a swift turnover, Sarah McLeod took the stage with drummer Mick Skelton. With her back to the audience and a leg propped up on the drum riser, McLeod launched into a rousing rendition of Never Enough from Beauty Was a Tiger. Pulsating her way around the intimate Mojos stage and making eye contact with all sections of the audience, it was a commanding and engaging start to proceedings. Sticking with her 2005 debut solo album, the duo then unleashed Private School Kid before diving into The Superjesus back catalogue for Down Again. Released in 1997, the song was the lead single from the band’s debut album, Sumo, and was included in the top fifty Australian songs of the 1990s.

McLeod then imparted her set with the first of a couple of unexpected turns. A gorgeously ferocious cover of Taylor Swift’s Wildest Dreams was driven along by Skelton’s driving drumming on the tom and McLeod’s sprightly guitar, while the chorus was patently brash and completely captivating. After diving back into Beauty Was a Tiger with He Doesn’t Love You, McLeod then revisited The Superjesus for the band’s 2000 anthem, Gravity. The next surprise was delivered when McLeod enlisted the crowd’s vocal prowess for a spirited rendition of Max Merritt’s gorgeous 1975 classic, Slipping Away. Drawing on her custom-built guitar’s bass capabilities, Gutter Queen was impeccably imparted with a suitable wallowing low end that came with an obligatory leap from the drum riser to end the set.

McLeod then invited Frasca and Barber to join her and Skelton for a Green Electric set. A feisty rendition of James Brown‘s It’s a Man’s World was followed by an equally determined version of Bikini Kill’s Rebel Girl. Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s Fortunate Son was next to make an appearance in what was quickly evolving into what would be one of the most robustly expressive jukebox playlists anyone in any bar around the world could select. That was emphatically cemented when the four-piece launched into The Beatles’ Revolution.

To close out the evening, the ensemble unloaded a blistering rendition of McLeod and Frasca’s collaborative single, Til It’s Gone. The two guitarists traded riffs before the pounding drumming crescendo heralded a wall of combined guitar sound. The song was precisely the sonic punch that hard-hitting rock and roll should be. After a leave-it-all-onstage performance, the saturated ensemble left the searing stage, with Frasca telling the audience she and McLeod would meet everybody at the merchandise desk. “Not until I go and get a drink”, a clearly spent McLeod responded with a wry smile. After a sweltering night of music, the audience undoubtedly felt the same.

BRETT LEIGH DICKS

Photos by somefx