Verge Collection For the Story launch @ Jack Rabbit Slim’s
w/ The Money War, The Spring Peaks
Friday, August 11, 2017
It’s was pretty impressive to see a half-packed dancefloor already during the first act of a Jack Rabbit Slims gig. Verge Collection’s For the Story tour Perth Show had nothing short of that, drawing exponential numbers of punters as the night wore on, creating a weird mixture of hippy Woodstock gals with EDM festival fans who were disappointed that there was no in-house DJ playing (hello, read f**king posters). With whoever being in charge of the smoke machine being very passionate about their job, it was a pretty rad gig hosting some pretty rad local bands (if you could see them).
The Spring Peaks were the first to entice punters with their old school pop-rock melodies. Bouncy and fleeting, there was a Paul McCartney feel to the band – mostly borne out the bass player honing a McCartney-esque bass and smashing out some intricate basslines. Making a brief hiccup with the rhythm halfway through the set, it was negligible as the band calmly and coolly carried on. Musical fortitude eventually holding out, The Spring Peaks made way for a pretty crisp opening to the night.
Following a brief intermission, The Money War set up small noises of support sounds and drums beats would burst out from stage, unintentionally keeping the punters on edge. Once they kicked off the crowd who had waited were rewarded with tracks off The Money War EP, cycling through Stars, Recall and playing new song Right Kind of Love. Filling the space with chilled out, jangly rhythms, props have to go to the intertwining vocals between Carmen Pepper and Dylan Olivierre. Their music cut through the crowd nicely; a few punters pulled fidget spinners in gratitude – seems rock has moved far past the lighter.
With any Verge Collection show you are going to expect songs about a certain subject matter: the suburbs, drugs, local IGA’s and p-plates. Verge Collection brought an oddly homey feel to the stage. That’s probably what drew a full house on the night, with the venue already at capacity by the time the band had already begun to plug in their guitars. However the mood of the crowd quickly turned from a jam-sesh in your mate’s bedroom on a Sunday arvo to a wild festival mosh. With Slim’s not taking a kind view on crowd-surfing, many punters sacrificed their presence in the venue to the great vibes of the inner crowd – security guards bringing down the most enthusiastic members of the crowd like flies.
With lead singer Ben Arnold guiding the band through rock hits that got the crowd into a wild mood, the close of Verge’s set was tied off with popular track Our Place and a tone that took an oddly grungy direction for the suburbanite act. Finishing in a maniacal fury of fuzzed out power chords and eclectic guitar solos, the band quickly brushed off any chance of encore and thanked the crowd, leaving any punters dazed as to what their suburban life would entail on the following Saturdays and Sundays of their weekends.
JOSEPH WILSON
Photos by Linda Dunjey Photography
