w/ PTV, Bertie Blackman
It is so good to have the man of the hour back in the country. For last eight or so months, Gotye AKA Wally De Backer has been touring the world and being generally amazing. He's bringing the tour to a close in his home country. Making Mirrors
is not even a year and a half old yet and it is still gaining critical
acclaim at the Arias and now, The Grammys; a huge thing for this little
Australian artist. This tour is a big step up from the last time he
toured the country, and shows what a true musical genius this man is.
Supporting him on this tour were the sensational Bertie Blackman and PVT.
Bertie Blackman opened to the grassy hill that is Riverstage,
and stunned those that made the effort to come down early. She has a
cool electro sound that can only be described as raw. This is a good
thing indeed. Unfortunately, however there’s not much you can sing along
with in Bertie's repertoire. It’s all lacks a certain melodious quality
at times. Her upcoming single is really catchy and, however it was
“Shadow Chasers” that was definitely the highlight of the set for me. It
was played with a delicacy that I hadn’t seen in her previous songs.
Ashamedly, this was my first Bertie Blackman experience, and I was not
disappointed in the slightest.
Up next was PVT. More people had dragged themselves away from
their daily working lives to grace the venue with their presence and it
was good to see the band play to a less grassy hill. From the opening
passage, I knew I liked these guys. The frontman’s vocals were really
quite remarkable and the drummer’s rhythmic fills were something. I need
to know more about this band. That’s for certain.
To say that Wally De Backer is a musical genius would be the
understatement of the century. He was joined on stage by nine other
musicians, including the regular rhythm section, a three piece horn line
that doubled as vocalists, a dedicated synth player and aux percussion
player. This was the same line up as his previous line up, but there was
something more polished that only an extended time on the road can
achieve. What was wonderful to hear with this set was music not only
from Making Mirrors, but also Like Drawing Blood and more noteworthy, “What Do you Want?” from his debut release, Broadface.
“State of the Art” has got to be one of my favourite tracks off the
record and to make this track even better live, Wally brought out his
home organs as well as the salesman who sold it to him, the legendary Barry Morgan.
He led Mr De Backer through his one finger method of playing the organ,
which led into this tune. Tonight, the words changed to incorporate the
organ and Barry Morgan, and it was one of the funniest and best things
I’ve seen.
“Somebody that I Used to Know”, has such a different feel live to its
recorded version. This is such a good thing, as we know and love it so
much, it’s nice to hear it interpreted in a different way. Bertie Blackman
returned to the stage in a Cat Suit. Not a catsuit, a Cat Suit. Ie,
dressed up as a cat. It made me chuckle a little as it changed the
meaning of the song entirely. “Now you’re just a cat I used to know…”.
Wally ended the set with “Hearts a Mess” which was a fitting
way to end, before returning to stage to play a couple more, including
the instrumental “Seven Hours with a Backseat Driver”. It is at this
moment that I have to mention the visuals that accompanied the entire
show. Many have already been uploaded to YouTube as videos to accompany
the songs, including the stunning “Bronte” that never fails to bring a
tear to my eye. The visuals that accompanied “Seven Hours with a
Backseat Driver” were just bizarre. To complete the show was “I Feel
Better” merging into “Learnalilgivinanlovin”. This got everyone dancing,
and was the proper way to finish the show.
This was one of the most incredible shows I’ve been to this year,
with the every particular of the show perfectly executed. Wally himself
is such a gentleman, thanking and introducing a member of his band after
each song. I still can’t believe just how complicated each and every
one of his songs are. I know I’ve said this a couple of times already,
but once more for reinforcement. Wally is a genius and he deserves every
success he is receiving.
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