Friday night saw former Fleet Foxes drummer J Tillman take to the stage of the Perth International Arts Festival, for the first show of his latest Australian tour as Father John Misty.
Opening proceedings were local Alt. Country band Ruby Boots, fresh from a month long tour over East in support of new single “Kellie Anne”. All this recent touring, over the last couple of months, seems to have paid off for the band, they’re sounding tighter than ever. There were more than a few highlights throughout their set, one being the beautiful vocal harmonies on ‘Fool’ a song dedicated to some chips based heckling; whilst the “Devil” was another distinct highlight of the set. With a debut album due for release in the Spring theres plenty more to come from Ruby Boots.
Though he was only on the stage for just over an hour, Tillman certainly made an impression. It’s going to take a lot to top this performance for me this year. There was a charisma and intensity to the performance that made it feel like the set went on much longer than it actually did. The man is a consummate showman, shimmying and hip shaking his way around the stage, whilst the intervening banter and audience interaction between songs were as equally fascinating and entertaining as the songs themselves.
Seeing the songs performed live reminded how much I loved Fear Fun. The little things re-caught my attention, like that beautiful recurring guitar tone in “Misty’s Nightmares 1 & 2” or that Beatles-esque moment in “This is Sally Hatchet”. It was also interesting to see how those tracks translated to the live setting; they were recreated pretty faithfully, but live Tillman just seemed to imbue these tracks with extra intensity and energy.
To pick a highlight from the set is basically impossible, the whole set was simply quality throughout, though “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” is quite something live. And if forced, I’d probably pick it as my favourite of the night. The band finished the night with a two-song encore. The first a new track, “I Love You Honey Bear” before closing out the night with a fantastic rendition of the Canned Heat classic “On The Road Again”.
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