Ah the sound of gritty blues on a wintery summer’s night! THE GROWL’s EP launch at The Bakery was the perfect Friday night warmer. The display of a great new crop of musical talent coming out of Perth is embodied by this quartet (sometimes quintet).

After the stage was heated by the beautiful FELICITY GROOM, The Growl kicked off around 11pm. The crowd was super dense for the venue and packed to the back. Audience members were a bit of a mixed bag delight showing what positive reception the band receives from all walks of musical taste.

Every element came together perfectly on stage. Drumming was absolutely banging! A total hypnotising focal point with the drummers sometimes mirroring and other times completely abandoning the path. It is truly visually dynamic to the performance.

The bass clearly provides the needed depth but at an insane level with the blues tone and sound. Adding distortion on vocals as well as guitar gave tracks more of a contemporary feel but were anchored back with great moments of honky tonk keys.

A highlight was song “Cleaver Leaver”, the title of the album in the works. “Smoke It Down” was another stand out with a sound that would rival “the growl” of a jet plane (distortion definitely has something to do with this).

Front man Cameron Avery apologised for his slow acoustic songs which punctuated the set. A lack of confidence in his solo performance ability of self written songs at times showed him quite vulnerable.

They announced “we got a couple left” meaning three. It felt like they weren’t following a set list and that you were just hanging in on a jam. They thanked everyone for coming out and asked “Are there any Beyonce fans here?” and finished off with a cover of “Work It Out”.

The boys have really pulled it together and tightened up. Their sound has progressed and become more crisp, well timed and rich, so so rich. The spirit of the band really shone through in performance and they were completely confident with their material allowing for those little tasty slices of personal flair.

One thing is certain – you don’t devour The Growl, they devour you.