Plini – Gig Review & Photo Gallery 19th May @ Badlands, Perth WA

Plini
Badlands Bar, Perth WA
May 19, 2022
Support: Yomi Ship

At long last, live music is finding its feet again after a little over two years. The rust-eaten chains of restrictions and closed borders are undone; RGB-lit stages emerge from beneath a layer of dust, and musicians—with myriad fans in tow—shake the cobwebs from their performances and Doc Martens respectively to grace them in droves. The pair of us dusted off our own cobwebs to bring an insight to the action on the ground, here were our findings.

One might expect the downtime to leave artists with a little rust of their own, but Plini and company, with what may be the perfect choice for a supporting act in Yomi Ship, were eager to dispel that line of thought with two inspiringly polished sets—as if the last couple of years were little more than a week where rehearsals were cancelled in favor of the footy.

The three-piece Yomi Ship set the tone minutes before the first notes filled the venue, lighting incense at their feet between two impressive pedalboards. What followed—to the delight of every fan of progressive music in the room—was an eclectic string of odd-timed tracks that walked the line between fun and the psychedelic.

The above-mentioned pedalboards weren’t just for show either. Each change in the music and tempo—of which there were many—saw the addition and removal of *something* to keep those in attendance guessing with smiles on their faces.

After the intermission, Plini, backed by a dream-team line-up—including the human calculator that is Chris Allison of Instrumental (adj.) on drums—emerged to a sea of cheers and applause. Within moments, they launched into a set so jam-packed with groove and tasteful leads it’d grace even the most scholarly of music nerds’ faces with unadulterated stank (you know the look).

The word ‘virtuoso’ is thrown around a lot in the current year, with social media shredders more prevalent than ever, but Plini is someone well-deserving of the title in this writer’s opinion, walking the path of the greats with classy hints to the likes of Guthrie Govan of The Aristocrats fame, while exhibiting his own modern prog-metal flair.

I’ve never seen a room full of punters so enthralled without a single word having been sung—this was a night about instrumental music, and a firm reminder that it holds all the merit of its lyrical contemporaries.

If you’ve been living under a rock, both Yomi Ship and Plini are well worth checking out, with the latter returning in just under a month in support of Sydney’s Northlane.

Gig Review by Levi Dale
Photo Gallery by Matthew ‘Ven’ Gedling Insta: @raiiv_n. FB: @vndiagram

Please credit Wall of Sound and Matthew Gedling if you repost photos!

Yomi Ship

Plini