LIVE: MICK THOMAS’ ROVING COMMISSION with HANA & JESSIE-LEE’s BAD HABITS – Perth, 13 Dec 2025

Shane | 15 December 2025 | Reply

LIVE: MICK THOMAS’ ROVING COMMISSION with HANA & JESSIE-LEE’s BAD HABITS – Perth, 13 Dec 2025
The Oxford Hotel, Perth, Western Australia
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar

Mick Thomas’ Sunday Session Christmas hootenanys at The Oxford Hotel in Perth’s leafy suburb of Leederville aren’t just a tradition, they’re a joyous celebratory event looked forward to all year round – so much so that they’re now a Saturday AND Sunday staple to meet demand. For some, it’s simply not Christmas until Mick Thomas plays The Oxford.

And so, on a scorching Perth summer afternoon what can be better for the soul that some breezy, folky, country-flecked good time rock n’ roll amidst a crowd with a friendly, happy vibe, and some welcome cold bevvies.

The openers on this tour are a great find: Hana & Jessie-Lee’s Bad Habits. They’re a quartet of Melbourne-based ladies led by the titular Hana Brenecki (vocals, guitar) and Jessie-Lee Zubkevych (lead guitar), more than capable of writing a catchy tune with one foot in country rock and one drenched in soul.

Led by Hana’s mighty, sultry, earth-mother vocals, the band are so deep in the groove that it’s ridiculous they’re not household names already. The show ends on a rollicking note with the upbeat Say What You Mean, and we weren’t the only ones making a beeline for the merch stand to purchase their latest album of the same name.

As is traditional, Mick Thomas starts with a Christmas poem, Christmas Day At Spencer Street, before the Roving Commission take the stage for a couple of hours of wonderful music and some of the best times you can have with your pants on.

A Roving Commission show isn’t just an audience and band separated by a barrier, it’s a warm, inclusive and intimate event, no matter the size of the room. Thomas is a national treasure, one of our finest storytelling songwriters, up there with the greats, and he has an enormous catalogue of favourites to choose from his long solo career, his time with the beloved Weddings, Parties, Anything, as well as dropping in a couple of well-chosen covers.

Before we can get to the good stuff, though, we have not one but THREE microphone failures to contend with in the first couple of songs, resolved only by swapping cords out completely. Rest assured there was no diva behaviour – the show kept moving forwards, Mick and The Commission making a joke out of running for whichever mic was still working to deliver their vocals until all was rectified. It’s another touch of warmth and bonhomie in that we’re invited to see the lighter side and share in the comedy of the moment, and just makes us love him all the more.

Former WPA lynchpin Jen Anderson stuns on fiddle and vocals, as always; Brooke Taylor’s vocals and guitar shine; Squeezebox Wally’s keys and accordion are as integral as they were in WPA; while drummer Dave Folley and Ben Franz on bass provide the immaculate rhythm section.

Homeward Direction, Ticket In Tatts, latest single A Mighty Ride, the ever-beautiful but sad tale of shift-crossed lovers Step In, Step Out, The Sparrows Of Tullamarine, the cannibalistic escaped prisoner story A Tale They Won’t Believe, Father’s Day, Away Away, and Jolly Old Christmas Time are all welcomed, and give the amassed Oxford pub choir opportunity to sing along in full voice and have a grand old time doing so.

The stories Thomas shares to introduce each some are almost as important and moving as the songs themselves – Thomas just can’t help but be an engaging, entertaining and at times hilarious raconteur.

Hana and Jessie-Lee join The Roving Commission for an encore beginning with WPA favourite Rain In My Heart – far more joyous than the title may imply – followed by the heartbreaking For The Shortest Time, a song which never fails to move men and women alike to tears. A cover of The Triffids legendary Wide Open Road caps things off on a frikken awesome note.

But wait, there’s more: Mick and The Commission are back for a second encore (the first one of this extensive Australian tour, apparently), culminating in a cover of Ricky Nelson & the Stone Canyon Band’s Garden Party.

That song’s chorus goes “I learned my lesson well – if you can’t please everyone, got to please yourself,” but judging by the band’s Cheshire Cat grins and the crowd’s emotional and vocal reactions it seems pretty obvious that both bands achieved a perfect score on both counts, and as we shuffled out of the pub it really did feel like now it was finally Jolly Old Christmas Time at last.