Yardstock is an event that really captures Metropolitan Western Australia. A journey over 5 backyards and spaces in coastal suburbia and thirteen acts provides a day of easy pleasure. Moving through the suburbs of outer Fremantle on a warm Perth Saturday, with the sea breeze flowing through your hair, you are easily reminded of why this city is so nice. Here you have people coming together to put on music in their unkempt backyards having scores of people sauntering through their homes.

Charming and open to all comers, there is an easy sense of community to Yardstock. It’s part of the celebration and embrace of the west coast chill. I arrived at Yard 2, having missed the first and was greeted by a full backyard and the glorious rough and ready sounds of Lewis Rice O'Donnell and his band who will be familiar to Darling Rangers and Ten Mountains fans. The folkie rock start was just what I needed to get ready for an afternoon of good music and times.

Tanaya Harper brought her winning self-deprecating style to the fore, sound tracking the afternoon with some cute and cool indie pop that was the perfect counter-part to the sun’s rays and homebrew ginger beer being sold for 2 bucks a cup.

Zerodent’s punk was next on the eclectic line up, with the seasoned members entertaining young and old in a climactic set. With songs like Lucky they captured the vibe of the banner behind them with an ode to the ungovernable spirit.

The next couple of venues continued the eclectic theme of the day. And the people continued to be the best of humanity, with special thanks to the man who traded cold beers for our warm ones and let us use his esky. When one drunken dude sauntered over and asked ‘Hey mate, did you take Rog’s beers in that esky?’ he was met with the supreme ‘na man, but feel free to grab a beer’. Friendliness and a slight intoxication permeated the day.

Being able to explore backyards that capture that magical mystery that so many backyards hold to in our childhood is something special, but the night was truly capped off by a visit to the secluded auditorium in the Freo bushlands. With easily kickovable lighting (for the drunken mc to amuse us with) giving a beautiful backdrop as orange illuminated clouds loomed overhead, the intoxicating darkness and meditative gliding’s closed out what was another day that was truly memorable. Yardstock is a gem.

Featured