Gotye headlined a packed Showbox SODO a few weeks back with Kimbra opening. Here are a few thoughts I had from the show and read on for my full photo gallery…
Kimbra came out in an Alice in Wonderland style blue dress with a long train and bows, bouncing around playfully and belting out vocals with her impressive vocal range. Despite brief issues with her earpiece, she delivered beautiful live renditions of many of the tracks off of her recent album Vows, which came out August 2011 internationally.
Highlights were “Good Intent,” “Plain Gold Ring” (a Nina Simone cover), and a new one, “Come Into My Head,” which will be on her US release of the album.
Gotye came out to a cacophony of screams and launched straight into the set. His stage featured a huge projection of his art and sunset scenes, which one could imagine the musicians were part of at times. Gotye’s instrumentation was remarkable. He stood at a station with at least 10 instruments, including drums, microphones with various effects, and sampler pads.
At one point, Gotye was describing an instrument his guitarist was going to play, and someone in the crowd shouted out “I want to play it!” To this, Gotye responded cheekily, “You can’t… it’s mine… well, maybe after!” to which the entire crowd roared.
“State of the Art” had everyone dancing and screaming as Gotye lowered his voice with an effect to give it a deep, booming resonance.
The song that stole my heart last night was Gotye’s “Hearts a Mess.” I had never heard the track before, and it isn’t particularly remarkable from the start, but about two minutes in, he belts out five passionate lines which gave me a lump in my throat. The Australian and New Zealander artists complement each other fantastically, as evidenced by their collaboration “Somebody That I Used To Know.” The sensational song has recently blown up across the Internet, and features a video of the duo naked with paint spreading and receding across their bodies in geometric shapes. Kimbra had changed into a sparkly black dress, and they both radiated as they sang the famous track. The crowd sang every word, and many a camera phone was raised to capture the moment.
Here are my photos from the show:
