Photos courtesy of Reuben Black Media

Heading to HBF Stadium for Day 1 of WAM’s Hear & Now festival, it’s almost as if I’d forgotten how much I missed attending live gigs.

While the huge stadium venue appeared ill-suited, this quickly became an afterthought. After settling into each set, it was heartening to see people of all ages brought together for one plain purpose: to support Western Australian music.

Here’s our recap of the night’s extraordinary headliners:

Adrian Dzvuke

Adrian Dzvuke is made of starlight. There’s no denying it; the man is born for the stage. With the artist’s finesse and catchy songs, it’s easy to see why Pilerats has dubbed 2021 as ‘The Year of Dzvuke’. Premiering his new song, the singer unleashed more attitude than listeners were used to – with well-known hits like ‘Darling’ and ‘Bad Like Ri Ri’ reinforcing Dzvuke’s stage presence. The latter commanded an audience-wide sing-a-long and for half the set, we were treated to entirely new tracks like ‘Red Wine’, ‘Too Young’ and ‘Heartbreaker’. His supposed next new single ‘Take Your Time’ might just be my new personal favourite. If anything, this departure to dreamy pop sees him progressing in the right direction.

Stella Donnelly

Having never witnessed Stella Donnelly play live before, her performance left me speechless. Floating onto stage solo, she appeared in a vintage fairy-like nightgown with a harmonica holder and acoustic guitar in hand. It was a soft yet striking introduction, with ‘Grey’ and ‘Beware Of The Dogs’ getting everyone swaying. With the recent call-to-arms protesting violence against women, ‘Boys Will Be Boys’ and ‘Old Man’ hit home with its relevant and biting lyricism. As one of the most powerful feminist voices in Australian music, Stella continues to put her talents to great use. Later, her band appeared to help debut her newest track, ‘Doing Time’ – which reminded me of a well-loved Beach House song or two. To conclude, Stella left us with a ‘Love Is In The Air’ cover as she sang and played her heart out on keys.

San Cisco

Indie pop icons San Cisco got off to a smashing start, no less – belting out ‘Skin’, ‘When I Dream’ and ‘Alone’ before taking things up a notch. Just announcing they’d just been in Melbourne the night before, it was surprising to hear this was the biggest show they’d played all year. This set the tone for a fun-filled hour where they broke out nostalgic anthems like ‘Awkward’ and ‘Fred Astaire’. They also played ‘Reasons’ for the first time ever, which had all of us feeling a little too special. As a highly rotated act, San Cisco lived up to their name and delivered 110%. In dancing to our heart’s content, ‘Too Much Time Together’ was the perfect upbeat number to close their performance.

POND

Last but not least, it was POND’s time to shine. Now, I’d heard from many a friend how insane their stage presence was, and I knew I had to see it to believe it. The boys got straight into hits such as ‘Daisy’ and ‘Sweep Me Off My Feet’, accompanied by some of the coolest stage lighting I’d witnessed. While frontman Nick Allbrook’s vocals were virtually inaudible, the enjoyable bulk of the experience was their psychedelic instrumentals. For those of us who were well sober, it was intoxicating.

Throw in a mystical flute cameo backed by electrifying guitars and zany synths, and you’ve got one delectable concoction. The crowd surfing that ensued resembled some kind of religious ritual, where everyone had lifted their hands in the air – almost like a sign of worship. With ‘Tasmania’, ‘Paint Me Silver’ and ‘The Weather’ lined up for the finish, it was a feel-good end to an enthralling evening.