Kiera Jas is a renowned indie musician, hailing from Margaret River originally but now considers herself a Perth local. She has played at Nannup Music Festival, Groove In The Moo Festival, and shared the stage with musicians such as Missy Higgins, Mama Kin, The Dreggs and now The Paper Kites, among many others. She opened the evening ahead of The Paper Kites with her delicate soulful melodies and intricate song writing, taking to the stage with just her guitar. Kiera hails from Margaret River in WA, and now considers herself a Perth local.
Kiera told the crowd her first song, Figs, is about metaphors, for checking in with the ones you love when you can. She said sometimes life is like a fig and sometimes you open it and its crusty and disappointing but that’s okay because at least it still grew. She checked in with the crowd often throughout the set as she sang with the voice of an angel. Her next song, Heading West, is a powerful track about making the move from Margaret River up to Perth, about transition and big life changing decisions, but knowing that you are going to be okay regardless.
Her next track, Thoughts, is a soulful song about being an overthinker and having a lot of thoughts in your head and just having to get through it. It was a beautiful track with haunting vocals over the top of clean guitar tone that everyone was tuned into, the room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Kiera followed this up with Astro Kid, a song that she dedicated to Greg Quicke who used to run astro tours up in Broome. This song had a slightly 70s disco vibe with soaring vocals pushed through a reverb pedal. There was great crowd participation and singalong of the chorus to carry the lyrics to the stars.
Kiera Jas ended her set with Tiny Steps, a heartfelt number and a reminder to ones self to have a goal but not to do the splits to get there, just to put steps in to make it achievable. This track had another singalong and clap along from the crowd cheering her on as she sang her heart out on stage with her beautiful vocal melody. None of her songs were sappy love songs, but I like that, it was refreshing to hear songs about navigating life and drinking tea and blue skies and the moon.
Setlist: Figs, Heading West, Thoughts, Astro Kid, Tiny Steps
If you like Angie Colman, Siobhan Cotchin or Greta Stanley, then you will enjoy Kiera Jas and her heartfelt delicate tunes.
Follow Kiera Jas: @kierajasmusic | Facebook | Apple Music | YouTube | YouTube Music | Spotify |
Hannah Cameron is an alternative folk musician from Melbourne with a vocal range that can hit the high notes to the rafters and bury the deeper notes in the depths of the ocean. Her lyrics are sweet and simple but powerful. Hannah is part of The Paper Kites’ Roadhouse Band, recording their album with them and touring all over the world. She started her set thanking the crowd, saying this is the first time she has been to this side of the country.
Hannah’s first track is about giving into something when you shouldn’t. I didn’t catch the name of it but it was pure, sweet and beautiful. Her second song, Backsliding, is from her recent album, Holding Pattern, and she said it is for anyone who has gotten back with their ex too many times. She knows how to use her voice to hit those high power notes that carry the melody throughout the entire band room.
Hannah was straight into her next song, Holding Pattern, with powerful simple strumming. This was a song about transitional decisions, staying put or making a choice to change. Hannah wasted no time, ripping into her next track about existential dread, called Repeat. The similar themes of transition, journey and discovery carried into her next track, Smells Like Leaving. Her last track, All I Know For Sure, is about realising that ultimately you don’t have any answers. Hannah said that in recognising that, there is freedom and liberation in just letting that be, to create room and space for listening to yourself. Hannah Cameron took us on a musical journey through her set of self-discovery and being okay with not having all of the answers, her voice used as a powerful tool to express her own journey through her music.
If you like Juice Webster, All Our Exes Live In Texas, or Amistat, you will enjoy Hannah Cameron.
Follow Hannah Cameron: @hannahcameronmusic | Website | Facebook | Triple J Unearthed | Bandcamp | TikTok | Spotify | YouTube
Finally, it was time for indie folk rock band The Paper Kites to take to the stage at Freo Social for this sold-out gig. By this time, the band room was absolutely packed, and you couldn’t fit another person inside, but everyone was still respectful and gave each other enough space. Having played together since 2009, The Paper Kites consists of a group of five friends who also happen to be incredibly talented multi-skilled musicians. There is lead vocals and guitar player Sam Bentley, Christina Lacy on keys, guitar and vocals, drummer Josh Bentley, David Powys on guitar, vocals and banjo and Sam Rasmussen on the bass.
The Paper Kites were playing in Fremantle as part of their At The Roadhouse tour, showcasing their new album by the same name. As such, they have brought along The Roadhouse Band, friends of The Paper Kites that they wrote and recorded the album with, in Campbell’s Creek, Victoria, to play these songs in their true form. Their album, At The Roadhouse, was recorded at an Sound Recording, an old stable-turned-studio, which had an old mining supply store out the front. The Paper Kites turned the empty bones of this store into a working rustic pub and lived a month long residency here while writing and recording the album with friends that would become The Roadhouse Band. There were video clips recorded of their live shows and a feature film created documenting the Roadhouse journey. Knowing this history behind the album and the songs, it was a real treat to see them play tonight in Freo, showcasing their talent on stage.
The Roadhouse Band includes Matt Dixon on guitar and pedal steel, Hannah Cameron on organs, piano, tambourine and backing vocals, Chris Panousakis on guitar, percussion and backing vocals.
The lights were dimmed to darkness as The Paper Kites and The Roadhouse Band took to the stage. The band room at Freo Social is not small by any means but having eight musicians plus instruments on stage made it feel cosy and warm. Having The Roadhouse Band along for the tour meant The Paper Kites are able to achieve a multi-layered sound with so many instruments and vocal melodies. Their first few tracks opened with Between The Houses, Till The Flame Turns Blue, and Hurts So Good were nice and mellow, with beautiful vocal harmonies that brought a great response from the crowd. The soft and delicate vocal harmonies fitted together with an incredible intricacy that carried each other like a light breeze across the band room, with the instruments sounding like a sun kiss on warm skin.
There were multiple electric and acoustic guitars, banjo, bass, keys, percussion instruments, a pedal steel, just to name a few. Sam told the crowd they welcome requests so the audience can feel involved, but that they will stick to their setlist. He talked about making their record last year, At The Roadhouse in Campbell’s Creek, a small town in Victoria that they turned into a bar and how they would play shows every Friday and Saturday night. He told the crowd how he didn’t tell anyone they were playing, they just opened up in the community and the first show had five people in the crowd, but by the end of the month and with zero advertising done, they couldn’t fit anyone else in. There was some magic in this, organic and beautiful creating of music.
Given how many instruments and people were on the stage, I want to give a shout out to the guitar tech, diligently tuning the guitars and instruments side of stage, getting them ready for each song and swapping them out with such speed and precision that he could probably change a formula 1 tyre just as fast. I lost count of how many instrument swaps there were, but I was impressed by the sheer volume.
Sam asked if everyone was feeling okay out there, and said he asks that because there are a lot of sad people who go to their shows, and a lot of couples, so he likes to check in and make sure everyone is fine. This sweetness is something that comes across tenderly in their lyrics. He continued that its really good to be back in Australia before the band played through their part of the set, delighting the crowd with Nothing More Than That, Green Valleys, Tenenbaum and Burn The Night Away. The songs were played to the quietest crowd I have ever heard, everyone was hanging onto the lyrics so intently that you could hear a pin drop outside of the hauntingly beautiful vocal harmonies blending perfectly together.
The stage was darkened, and a special microphone was brought out as The Paper Kites formed a semi-circle, gathering around Sam and Dave with acoustic guitar and banjo. With just a spotlight illuminating their faces, they began to harmonise together on Bloom. It was so beautiful to see the crowd singing the song, word for word, not back to the band, but along with the band. Bloom was one of the first tracks I heard of The Paper Kites, on a music show on the TV when I was vacuuming my loungeroom one day while living in Melbourne. It stopped me in my tracks because it was so heartfelt and soft but powerful. I first saw them play live in Melbourne in 2016, as part of their Electric Indigo tour. Seeing them again now, eight years later, and seeing how they have progressed as a band, through COVID and a few more albums later, I was just as enraptured as I was back then.
It was at this part of the set that the band dispersed from the stage and their seats removed for the rockier second half of the set. They came back on to cheers from the crowds, armed with Gibson SGs and Gretschs, among others. They picked the pace up from the slower first half by jumping into June’s Stolen Car, very rocky with a 70s vibe. This was followed by Without Your Love, Good Nights Gone and the blues-rock Black & Thunder. Good Nights Gone was a slower song but a real toe tapper. It was soft and beautiful like resting your head on a feather pillow as the song kissed you goodnight on the forehead as you shut your eyes. Black & Thunder had a soft rock / almost bluesy feel to it, like what you would expect to hear on a new car ad on the TV, with deep bass notes but high melodies driving it along.
There were plenty of guitar solos, bass solos and drum solos as the many layered guitars roared and the vocals soared. It was like a multi-layered dip full of spicy chips and jalapenos, with a sprinkle of pepper on top. It was this delicious, beautiful swirl of instruments on stage all mixing into your ears all at once. Before you know it, the songs were over as fast as they began.
Watching The Paper Kites and The Roadhouse Band was like watching a bunch of friends having a really awesome jam, where everyone is just having a great fun time. They played an Adrianne Lenker cover, Anything, which was a softer acoustic number. It was absolutely beautiful, and they definitely did it supreme justice. It was soulful and from the heart, with a soft and sweet build up at the beginning before the rest of the band joined in. I was so impressed with their take on this song and how the insanely delicate vocal harmonies just seemed to float together like feathers on a breeze.
The band gathered again in front of the fancy microphone illuminated by a spotlight for their final song, Paint, with Sam playing soft acoustic guitar as the band harmonised together. The crowd sung along softly and full of encouragement, savouring the moment. It was a bittersweet end to their set, but they came back for an encore, playing By My Side as their real final song of the evening. Its another beautiful track about waiting for someone to take control. It sounds like you can drive into the stars and through the galaxy when you listen to it, and the crowd went mental at the final ‘thanks everyone for coming out’ at the end of the song.
Seeing The Paper Kites and The Roadhouse Band was truly a beautiful memorable experience, one I am so glad to have witnessed. I love them just as much as I did when I first heard them eight years ago, and they are better than ever before. Thank you to The Rockpit and Hannah at Frontier Touring for arranging the access.
Setlist: Between The Houses, Till The Flame Turns Blue, Hurts So Good, Nothing More Than That, Green Valleys, Tenenbaum, Burn The Night Away, Bloom, June’s Stolen Car, Without Your Love, Good Nights Gone, Black & Thunder, Anything (Adrianne Lenker cover), Paint, By My Side.
The Paper Kites ‘At The Roadhouse’ tour continues around Australia, for the rest of the dates and tickets, see here.
You can watch The Paper Kites – At The Roadhouse (Official Film Trailer) here. The premiere of the feature-length film will be shown in Melbourne on 1 September and Sydney 4 September.
If you like Bombay Bicycle Club, Boy & Bear or Angus & Julia Stone, you will love The Paper Kites.
Follow The Paper Kites: @thepaperkites | Spotify | Facebook | Website | YouTube | Apple Music | TikTok
With thanks to Frontier Touring for the media access.
