(Photos courtesy of Grace Crume for Sliced Photography. All rights reserved.)

This past Sunday evening the Emerson Theater played host to a slew of bands from all over the world. Though the evening was headlined by Canberra’s Hands Like Houses and featured five other bands (including one Indianapolis local For the Fire kicking off the night), the most memorable set of the evening—or rather, the set which left the most folks walking away wanting more—came from the other Australian act who performed, Perth indie quartet The Faim.

The band of four brought everything they had and left it all on that stage, whether that was energetic frontman Josh Raven moving around quite a bit, both on and off stage, or the brute force of drummer Sean Tighe pounding the kit and keeping perfect time. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s also worth noting the versatility of guitarist Sam Tye and keyboardist Stevie Beerkens, both of whom served as the group’s bassist at different points throughout their brief set—at one point on their song “A Million Stars” Beerkens even picked up his keyboard and played it like a keytar, making things even more entertaining than they were already. In terms of sound, The Faim offered up a sort of massiveness that rivals the heaviest-sounding of post-hardcore groups they have opened for in the past, such as Lower Than Atlantis, while Raven’s unique vocals drew more than one fan comparison to Panic! At the Disco’s Brendon Urie.

Right from the beginning The Faim’s set was plagued with setbacks, being forced to shorten it drastically due to technical difficulties. From initially only having their sound come from one side of the stage, which cut off their set opener almost completely, to certain points in their brief set when the vocals seemed a little low in the mix, they could have easily let these sorts of challenges get in the way of their performance, but these Aussie boys were not having any of that. Instead, they gave it all they had, and put every ounce of effort they could into entertaining a crowd which may not have been familiar with their music before but was no doubt left walking away ready to look up the band’s music, buy their merch, and come out to their show the next time they roll through Indianapolis, which may be as soon as the spring and will certainly last longer than four songs.