LIVE: MANNEQUIN PUSSY with SMOL FISH – Perth, 3 Dec 2024

Shane | 4 December 2024 | Reply

LIVE: MANNEQUIN PUSSY with SMOL FISH – Perth, 3 Dec 2024
The Rosemount Hotel, Perth, Western Australia
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
Photography by Linda Dunjey

There’s a moment about three quarters through Mannequin Pussy’s first ever Australian show where Missy Dabise – her voice between songs a papery whisper – conducts the crowd to join with her in releasing a primal scream of anguish. Her explanation is long, a communion of sorts, but I’ve never heard a pub so quiet – even the obnoxious chatterboxes shut up, transfixed by this magnetic woman. This is notable not only for the few minutes of silence before the wounded roar of a few hundred punters, not only for the magnificent, perfect, intense, punk, cathartic release the scream gives us when it finally comes, but also for the negative reaction of a few present.

One bloke, clearly confronted by this fierce display of open-mindedness both onstage and in the crowd and looking for someone to reinforce his archaic attitudes, speaks derisively to myself and another guy during a visit to the toilet: “what do you think about this woman power stuff” he says with a sneer. “Maybe it’s not about women’s power OVER men, mate, but women being powerful in their own right, and being equal. Don’t we all deserve to be equal?” I replied once I’d done what I’d gone there to do. He snorted, embarrassed that his attempt to recruit an ally to make himself feel less downtrodden had failed. “Oh, yeah… haha… but they can’t dominate us, can they… haha.”

That the band engender this sort of lame reaction from a few meatheads present is perfect, because they are confronting the status quo in every way. Their music is the soundtrack to a revolution they neither started nor will finish, an ongoing reaction to centuries of subjugation and derision and impedance by the patriarchy or by religion or corrupt governments or people in uniforms or meatheads like that guy.

Which is not to say they are an overtly political band, despite their championing. They are fiercely independent artists who aren’t afraid to be vocal about what they believe in, and to our mind equality is something worth being vocal about, as is love, longing, heartbreak, misadventure and all the other things they sing about.

Smol Fish

Opening the show is Smol Fish, four young women who are equally idealistic whilst sounding very different indeed. Where Mannequin Pussy are intense and their palate broadly ranges from pop rock to thrashy punk, Smol Fish play lush, dreamy pop with sunny melodies and gorgeous harmonies. Where Mannequin Pussy are dark and perhaps cynical of a world (to quote Smol Fish’s bio) “not built with them in mind,” Smol Fish are sincere in the way only young people truly can be.

Through Grapes, Sweet Taste, Conditionally, More, Be Gentle and others their sweetness is irresistible and their set thoroughly enjoyable. They may be smol fish now but keep moving forwards and they could well become big fish very soon.

[Show picture list]

It’s not sufficient to call Mannequin Pussy “punk rock” – they’re so much more, and Missy’s singing voice has a startling range from sweetly melodic to a violent, riot-inducing scream. They start with some of their mellower songs – I Don’t Know You, Sometimes, Nothing Like and the confrontingly personal Drunk II – then build the intensity, volume and heaviness through the likes of Loud Bark, I Got Heaven, Of Her, Everything.

When the frontwoman does address the crowd it’s to say, “Hello Australia – you’re all so beautiful!” They seem genuinely thrilled to be “halfway round the world” and she shares that this is their 92nd show of the year – “we counted! Now we get to have some fun.”

Early on she exhorts everyone to shout the word “pussy” – the guys first, because “it’s the guys who most often have a problem with the word, after all.” I guess the guy in the boy’s room is intimidated by strong, independent, vocal woman who aren’t afraid of the word “pussy.”

In that delicate whisper she shares a secret: “Can I tell you something about your brethren? They said, ‘you don’t have to go to Perth – it’s just a small town.’ Which is a great reason for us to go there.” We’re glad they stood up to those Eastern States haters of the best part of the country.

Their devastating final bracket begins with the aforementioned primal screaming and ends with OK? OK! OK? OK!, Pigs Is Pigs, Emotional High and Romantic.

[Show picture list]

The most punk thing about Mannequin Pussy – in addition to Missy (so short she’s hard to see above the heads of the crowd from further back in the room), there’s drummer Kaleen Reading, bass player and sometimes vocalist Colin ‘Bear’ Regisford, guitarist and keyboardist Maxine Steen, plus touring all-rounder Carolyn Haynes – is their attitude and a brazen and fierce need to be themselves no matter the expectations of others, a no-fucks-given tempest for which they quite rightly make no apologies.

Filing out the door on a – yes – emotional high, it’s a fair bet that this gig will make a lot of people’s favourites list for the year. It certainly felt like we were a part of something memorable – perhaps even something important. Long live Pussy power.

Set List – Mannequin Pussy:

I Don’t Know You
Sometimes
Nothing Like
Patience
Drunk II
Control
Softly
Loud Bark
I Got Heaven
Of Her
Aching
Anything
Everything
Perfect
Clams
OK? OK! OK? OK!
Pigs Is Pigs
Emotional High
Romantic