Perth's Snowman have teamed with the equally electrifying Baseball from Melbourne to help launch their new album before relocating to the UK.

It proved a canny double-bill in Baseball's hometown on Friday night, with the Corner Hotel being close to sold out. Both bands left the crowd wanting for more, but Snowman were perhaps the most polarising.

Playing their new album The Horse, The Rat and The Swan in its entirety from start to finish was a bold move; artistically rewarding if not viscerally. Relagating firecracker frontman Andy Citawarman to keyboards, backing vocals and percussion at the side of the stage dissipated much of the wild energy the band usually generates. But it did serve to pull focus on the statement at hand.

After a taut recreation of the album was in the can, the band seemed to loosen up, when it became apparent their experiment hadn't lost the crowd. In fact during an elongated closing jam, frontman Joe McKee lurched off the stage, guitar in hand, to sit down in the crowd. Strangely, the entire dancefloor proceeded to sit down with him, creating an eerie divot of a hundred or so people crouching down on the floor. It was the kind of connection both band and crowd seemed to be craving until that point and the memorable act delivered. Still, with the band relocating to the UK indefinitely and unsure of its return, it would've been sweet to hear some back catalogue.

(Pics: Kristy Lee)