Live Review

Perfume Genius – Captains Rest, Glasgow

• 11th May 2012

Perfume Genius’ Mike Hadreas has come a long way from his first album, which sounded as if it was recorded in a miasma in his bedroom. His new album, ‘Put Your Back In 2 It’, has seen him emerge from the submerged in static chillwave stylings of ‘Learning’ to a greater confidence in his songwriting, though these melancholy piano ballads are still intimately confessional, and reach parts of you most other songwriters can only fantasize of, or don’t even dare to.

He comes on to ‘AWOL Marine’, another keyboardist in the shape of his lover, Alan Wyffels, subtly fleshing out the three-piece’s sound, keeping it stark and minimal. This feels like a rare opportunity to see someone who I fear will soon be filling much bigger venues, and perhaps losing the fragile beauty of their sound, the sense that they’re letting you into a secret with their lyrics, in such an intimate setting.

Although tonight’s gig is sold out, Perfume Genius’ and the audience’s mood is reflective, full of personal longing, and the kind of confessions which so often go unexpressed. Mercifully, despite Mike’s shyness, songs like ‘Lookout Lookout’, ‘No Tear’ and the glorious ‘Hood’, all ring out true for his devotees to devour and grapple with.

However, with the stage being so low, and the sight lines from anywhere behind the front so challenging at the Captain’s Rest, his decision to sit down for most of the gig is rather unwise. Most of the crowd just can’t see anything.

Also, Mike is so nervous that he can’t engage with the crowd. Verbally that is. Admitting that he has no anecdotes, he lets the music do the talking, which it ably does, without any show boating or special pleading from him. These songs are so strong that they don’t need it, and I’m glad that he’s resisted the temptation to bury his songs with a brass section or something to that effect, as I’ve seen the likes of Iron and Wine or Bon Iver come a cropper doing.

He has the hushed crowd in the palm of his hand, and treats them to an encore of ‘Mr Peterson’. Ultimately though, this kind of performance does run the risk of reminding you that this is bedroom music, and may be best heard there.