FREMANTLE’S burgeoning reputation as the live music capital of WA has been enhanced by the WAM Showcase coming to the port city for the first time.
Previously held in Northbridge, the Showcase provides a national platform for emerging WA bands with hundreds of industry figures travelling from all over the country to get a glimpse of the next big thing.
While Perth has reportedly lost two-thirds of its live music venues in the past decade, Freo has enjoyed a mini renaissance.
• (top to bottom) Tanya Ransom, Soul inSync, and Claudia Tripp are performing at WAM Showcase.
Venues hosting live music include The Buffalo Club, Freo.Social, Mojos and Honky Tonk Blues, with smaller music festivals in the port city like Arrival, Hidden Treasures and Audible Edge replacing the bigger ones that have fallen foul of rising insurance and operating costs.
WA Music CEO Owen Whittle says it was encouraging that Freo has new live music venues like Wyola, the former RSL on High Street, which opened in May.
“It’s extremely rare to see new live music venues, unfortunately we’re often talking about them closing,” Whittle says.
“It’s real hard, it’s real grim, and that’s all the more reason we need to get around those that survive because I think we’re at a critical point where if we lose any more live music venues we start to lose critical mass of places for artists to perform, and particularly opportunities for emerging artists and new artists, that’s what’s really drying up.
“So, yeah, look, we’ve got to get behind places like the Buffalo Club that, you know, provide amazing opportunity and affordable opportunity for artists to perform.”
Held at Clancy’s Fish Pub, The Buffalo Club, Honky Tonk and the Wyola, WAM Showcase features 25 WA artists including Birdland, Blush, Boox Kid, Clare Perrott, Claudia Tripp, Figurehead and Georga Raath.
The Showcase is held as part of WA Music Week, which was on hiatus in 2024 as WAM reappraised the event.
“We made the decision last year that it makes sense to get into existing venues and support them and to get the public out to support them,” Whittle says.
“And the great thing about our showcase is that if you haven’t been to a gig, you know, a number of years, but you want to and you want to find new music, well, we’ve got lots of artists across four venues, you can see a lot of new music in one night, and, like, you will find a lot of artists that you enjoy seeing and then feel confident to go back out and see them at these venues again.”
WAMCon will kick off at Freo.Social the day before the Showcase, bringing up to 500 music industry professionals to the port city.
The peak body for music in WA, the not-for-profit WAM are best known for their annual awards, but in recent years they have been on the front foot in Fremantle, helping inner-city music venues like Freo.Social in their disputes with neighbours over noise.
“We’re constantly talking to government about noise reform,” Whittle says.
“You always see these people who move into the proximity of music venues for the vibrancy and then turn around and complain about the noise that generates the vibrancy—it’s a ridiculous situation.
“We had a great win at the last election, where we significantly increased the grants available for musicians, and then also all year round we do development work, so we assist musicians apply for grants. We also run industry workshops each and every month.”
The WAM Showcase on August 15 is sold out, but there will be a late release of tickets. For more info see wam.org.au.
by STEPHEN POLLOCK