What do Franz Ferdinand, The Vasco Era, and Supergrass have in common?  They all have t-shirt wearing fans that congregated to the sold-out show at the Zoo tonight.  First up on the bill was Tambalane, with ex-Silverchair drummer Ben Gillies as their claim to fame. Their disgustingly catchy song, Little Miss Liar, was downloaded by me and I’m sure many others in the audience from the triple j free downloads page and we were all interested in what the rest of their stuff would be like. 

And it was good.  The catchy pop of the first single Little Miss Liar was not quite indicative of the rest of their material which was more rock based.  Wesley Carr was the lead singer and guitarist for this outfit and made the most of their three chord rock leading the music with his great vocals.  The rhythm section was also strong with Ben Gillies leading on drums providing strong support but not taking over the melody.

Although the crowd was big for Tambalane it was obvious who everyone was there to see when as soon as End of Fashion’s set up finished the crowd surged towards the stage and you got a feeling for the awesome vibe of the Zoo at full capacity.  The band got warmed up with She’s Love first quickly followed by Anything Goes, both from their debut EP, and by the time they were to Love Comes In and Too Careful next the crowd was fully revved. 

They followed with many songs from their forthcoming debut album but the highlights were at the end.  The new single, O Yeah, being flogged everywhere from Triple J to whatever they play in the hair salon I was in the other day showed the great versatility of the band and got the crowd jumping.  A great cover of the Redsunband’s Devil Song was bashed out, but the crowd favourite was undeniably Rough Diamonds.  Hands all around the Zoo were in the air moving in time to this great melancholic rock song.

This band keeps getting better and better every time I see them.  With the amount of play their new single is getting, which is likely to continue with their album, this band is set to be the next big thing to come out of WA.