Multi-Grammy winner Pharrell Williams is on fire right now, and it is no surprise that tickets for his Brisbane sideshow were hot property. So much so that it warranted a venue upgrade to the Riverstage.
Opening the night was Nina Las Vegas and I absolutely love what she is selling. She played a good mix of both Australian and international tracks while mashing them together like a pro. The mosh as a whole didn’t really respond to the mix of songs, but it was a pleasantly chilled way to begin the evening.
Next up was Baauer. The “Harlem Shake” artist provided us with a range of diversely mixed tunes that really got the mosh bouncing. He also had cool visual effects one of which that created a real-time silhouetted image of him projected on the screen that stood behind him.
Pharrel slowly strutted out onto the stage, sending the crowd into frenzy; he soaked it all up with a bright smile on his famously smooth face. He stood posed upon the stage just looking out before he started off with a few covers, including “Hollaback Girl” and “Hot in Herre”.
Within the first couple of songs, he not only lost his jacket, but also his shirt - typical! He also insisted that girls from the front come on stage and dance with him. While this was a novelty, it actually looked quite good from where I was standing. Also, what an experience for those girls!
While there were many engaging things going on, there were also some major issues with the performance. For one, I thought he would play a lot more material from his latest release GIRL, however, there was only the duo of song, “Hunter” and Academy Award nominated song “Happy”. All the rest were super back catalogue or covers. This may have been okay had these back catalogue and cover songs not been half songs whipped into a medley performance. I’m talking one verse and one chorus - two choruses max, never the full song.
Also, all of the cuts he played had the backing vocals played too loud by Pharrel's DJ. DJ EQ, meaning that there were double vocals being performed for the entire show. Pre-recorded and live. I think more than 50% of the time he wasn’t singing at all, instead basking in the glory and enjoying the crowd's consistently euphoric reaction.
In saying all of this, he has an impressive level of energy and works the crowd oh-so-well; he also monologued a lot. When it came time to end the set, after surprisingly few songs, he gave a speech about the nature and importance of happiness; quite inspirational, if a little corny. This, of course, preceded “Happy”. It is such a damn good song. So damn good in fact, that he played it twice. Once from the stage, then he moved to the middle of the mosh and, with little more than a handful of security guards, sang it again. A triple encore of one of the most vibrant singles released in recent memory.
There’s no denying that this multi-award winner is one of the hottest artists around at the moment and, despite some minor issues with the set, he put on an amazing show; definitely one to tick off the bucket list.
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