RAW & UNPLUGGED
The Paddo, Perth - Sunday 31 July, 2011

DIAMOND EYE
With Babyjane and Ragdoll

By Shane Pinnegar

Ragdoll opted to open tonight’s show completely acoustic – just 2 guitars and vocals, and as they ran through tracks from their unofficial first release “Extended Play” it became clear that tonight’s showcase was on Ryan Rafferty’s stellar voice.

The usually tarmac melting ‘Foot To The Floor’ was presented as a shuffle, torch burner ‘Ashamed’ was all regret and hangover (and would’ve topped charts in 1990), new guitarist Paul Cush weighed in with the bluesy ‘If You Want It’, and a cover of Journey’s classic ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ all impressed, but it was the set closer - an emotive and ethereal ‘Going To California ’ – which showed just how epic 2 guitars and one voice can be.

Babyjane put the “RAW” into “Raw & Acoustic” tonight, ripping through album tracks including ‘Tell Me (What I need To Know)’, ‘Give It All Up’ and ‘Twenty Too Many’, the new “Appetite…”-era G’n’R sounding ‘Make It Sick’, and some cover action in the form of AC/DC’s ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ and The Cult’s ‘Lil Devil’.

Again the highlight of the set came from a re-arranged cover of an old classic – WASP’s ‘Wild Child’ sounding revelatory in this new, drastically altered form.

Diamond Eye did the groundwork setting this show up, and confidently strode onstage to follow the first two bands, blasting through a polished set of tracks from their forthcoming “Sound Of The Guns” EP and “Alive & Kicking” album including ‘Tonight’, ‘Machine’, ‘Waiting For Me’ and an excellent, rollicking version of arguably their best song ‘‘Been Away Too Long’.

Not willing to spoil the trend of the night, they threw in an amazing acoustic version of ‘Hysteria’ which sounded like Def Leppard sung by Dio, and sat comfortably alongside their original material.

“Raw & Unplugged” was an awesome opportunity for Perth rockers to see these three hard rocking bands interpret their songs AND the term “acoustic” in three very different ways, from the completely unplugged Ragdoll, the raw and rocking Babyjane and the polished acoustics of Diamond Eye, the winners tonight were the lucky fans in the audience.