LIVE: Perfume Genius |music

One band, one concert, one large towel…

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Venue: The Old Market, Hove

Date: 06/11/17

Unassuming, Mike Hadreas walked out on to the stage to huge applause from the Hove (actually) crowd. As Choir played in the background, the stage was set for one of Perfume Genius’ more intimate, yet most gratefully received gigs.

Juliana Barwick’s opening set put the crowd into a dream-like state, performing a soft medley of some of her most beautiful tracks. She transitioned effortlessly between songs – you could have easily mistaken her for a full-scale band, as she laid multiple tracks down flawlessly on a loop. Barwick’s vocals were a masterpiece: technically brilliant, and still conveying every emotion of the songs – a combination that doesn’t normally go hand in hand. Her voice was a priceless instrument, as she chose to emphasise melody lines as opposed to focusing solely on lyrics, bucking the trend in the charts (*cough* Taylor Swift *cough*). The echoe-y nature of the venue did let her down a little, blurring looped tracks together, but in some ways this added to the dream she created.

After a just a few minutes of stock elevator-style music, it was time for Perfume Genius’ set. Even the sound check guy walked out onto The Old Market stage to huge applause – it’s fair to say the crowd were hyped.

Hadreas followed the band onto the stage, and in all honesty, he appeared to be nervous. However, as Choir came to a close, the crowd cheered, and Hadreas’ spirit seemed to lift immensely.  In that moment, he visibly switched from bashful, unassuming Mike Hadreas to his alter-ego, the bold and brilliant Perfume Genius. His withdrawn posture exploded with the bass in Otherside (1.14), and he was transported to the matrix that this personality exists in, throwing his arms back and contorting his body as if he was Keanu Reeves. Beams in the rafters (literally) shook, knocking dust and various other paraphernalia (I’m still finding bits in my hair…) onto the audience as the bass dropped: it was the most hipster rave Hove has ever seen.

In between songs, Hadreas stepped out of the matrix, and seemed to revert to being Mike again. He seemed nervous about the interim talking, we’ve come to expect of artists these days. He needn’t have been: he easily connected with the crowd, creating one of the funniest in-between-songs-dialogue’s (featuring Golem and a large towel) certainly I’ve ever heard.

 

Sound wise, it could have been a stadium the band were filling – in many ways. The songs performed were crowd-pleasing-arena-fillers, and they were going all out with every note – it was almost as if they had been told this was their last performance ever.

Vocally, Hadreas continued to push himself. Listening to Perfume Genius on Spotify (or any other streaming service #notspon), you could be easily convinced that his vocals couldn’t exist outside of a studio setting – high, delicate falsetto passages intermixed with exacting harmonies, autotune surely? Well, you’d be wrong. It’s hard to top Julianna Barwick’s almost flawless live vocals, but Perfume Genius may have just done it. Shared glances amongst the crowd signalled the amazement as he seem to effortlessly master complex vocals.

The drum and bass lines quite literally shook the room. I hate to sound like my parents, but too loud man, too loud.

(*storytime*) I noticed far too much of the audience, like myself, covering their ears – not because we didn’t like the music, but because it was just so FREAKING LOUD. I didn’t know it was a given that we had to bring our own ear defenders? At first, I refused to acknowledge that it was as loud as it actually was – it was all in my head right? I was just being overly sensitive, I thought, glancing over at a crowd near the speakers. It was then that I realised they had little blue pieces of foam in their ears: they had actually brought ear plugs to a concert. Looking around, I realised that I was actually one of the few that didn’t. About halfway, I couldn’t take anymore – I couldn’t actually hear anything my ears were ringing so badly. So, I made my way to the back of the hall, to where those of us who live a slightly riskier life, were cowering near the exit with fingers in their ears. You may think I’m being over-dramatic, but it was that loud – I wish I was joking, but I genuinely thought my ears were going to start bleeding at one point.

This was outside (like properly outside) the hall…

(If you ever read this, anyone who works for Perfume Genius: PUT THE DRUMS BEHIND A SHIELD. You see, that way, you don’t have to have everything else SO BLOODY LOUD.)

The setlist was a compilation of Perfume Genius’ greatest anthems. It was seasoned only lightly with the style they are best known for – the Rufus-Wainwright-style ballads. Lyrically, this is understandable, as much of Learning and Put Your Back N 2 It focuses on a time of fragility, and No Shape is much more an era of transition to acceptance. Live, their cover of Mary Margaret O’Hara‘s Body’s In Trouble walks a fine line: it could so easily have fallen into the category “art” – something that has to be thought about and appreciated from a distance, immediately distancing the audience, but the power chords of the chorus seem to come out of nowhere to save it.

As you probably read in my last post (wait, you didn’t? check it out here), most of all I was looking forward to Wreath. I was not disappointed. This was definitely one of my personal highlights, but also was a window into Perfume Genius’ future: bright, magical, and confident.

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That’s all for this week, thanks for reading – and if you get the chance, I would urge you to go see Julianna Barwick and Perfume Genius live (it’s incomparable to just streaming their music). You can find out when they’re next in your city on their websites: http://www.juliannabarwick.com/ and http://perfumegenius.org/#tour – (again #notspon but pls notice me, actually don’t that’s embarrassing).

See you next time,
M x

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