Surely Wally de Backer must be crazy if he really believed he’d only have a small group of friends at the Prince on Thursday night. The little band room had sold out in no time, and considering there was no advertising it seemed a pretty awesome feat – so much so that an additional show was added and sold out the night before. Having just rounded up a summer of festival slots (including appearances at The Hot Barbeque, Meredith, Chill Island, Queenscliff and Laneway to name a few), Gotye announced that his tiny – in comparison – Prince shows would leave behind his travelling mini orchestra and he would revert back to the good ol’ days of his solo efforts.
Rather the novelty in the eyes of some, de Backer’s other project, The Basics, were first up on the night. The trio decided to ditch the super energetics of their usual stage show for a stripped back acoustic set, which by the end seemed a little of a let down. Nearly all the songs played were new and unknown and the rapid guitar and percussion, as well as louder notes were no where to be seen. Presumably saving himself for his solo efforts, de Backer took a lesser role during the set – singing fewer songs than his partners and avoiding his kit for the most part.
What thankfully remained were the faultless harmonies that help the trio to be so audibly amazing as well as the comical banter that comes mostly from bassist Kris Schroeder; including his admission that he’d given up on watching Gotye two songs in the night before and had gone home. The acoustic slant was definitely different from what the Basics generally deliver, and it likely left mixed reactions, but there was still some toe tapping and smiles to be had. Annoying though, judging by constant yells of love for Wally there were a few who didn’t care what the openers were delivering.
Despite having enough fans to sell out a national theatre tour last year, as well as the ability to draw thousands to his festival sets, Gotye shows little pretentiousness. de Backer walked on stage surrounded by his drum kit and additional percussion, a piano, samplers and additional microphones and greeted the audience as friends, before explaining some background to what he was about to perform. His laid back, yet very professional approach seemed evident from the beginning as he casually mimed along with vocal sampling before hitting his kit hard into the commencement of ‘The Only Way’.
From there, Gotye played an array of tracks from Like Drawing Blood, along with the one or two older numbers from Boardface. One such older track, ‘The Only Thing I Know’ saw de Backer’s percussion bashing at its finest with a perfect combination of singing and drum solos, along with the addition of ‘oh-ohs’ that are so distinctive to another, newer of his tracks, ‘Thanks For Your Time’. Whilst Gotye sounded amazing on stage, the amount of microphones meant that noise off stage was being picked up also. The sublime ‘Hearts A Mess’ seemed let down by the vocals of handfuls of too eager fans and more so disappointing was ‘Worn Out Blues’, when de Backer took to solo piano and the sound of talking punters almost drowned him out – so much so that he subtly let the audience know he wasn’t happy afterwards.
Visually, Gotye’s show couldn’t have been better within the Prince Band Room. The projection backdrop displayed videos throughout the show – from the comical alien probing film for ‘Coming Back’, the video clip inspired visuals during ‘Heart’s A Mess’, the moving Like Drawing Blood artwork in ‘The Only Way’, and the playful cartoon for ‘Learnalilgivinanlovin’. Gotye’s own lighting adorned the stage and set the perfect club scene, with the illuminated drum kit giving Gotye’s percussion even more character. Smoke machines billowed out endless amounts of the stuff (enough to leave a horrible taste in the mouths of those close to the front) and along with the manic lighting effects, Gotye whacked on some glasses and a large fake handlebar moustache to become a frenzied DJ for his blend of ‘A Distinctive Sound’ elements mixed with *MC Hammer*’s ‘Can’t Touch This’ and other various songs. Topping off the visual element of the show was during ‘Night Drive’ when bubble mix was passed around the crowd so that bubbles filled the front of stage.
Closer ‘Learnalilgivinanlovin’ pumped pop fuelled fun into the Prince and left the crowd wanting more of Gotye’s amazing music, though unfortunately there was no return for an encore. Regardless, the last hour had been something special considering Gotye could have performed a much larger venue and chose not to. The crafty sampling, soaring vocals and sheer originality already prove Gotye to be a genius, and his live show is the perfect display of such skills. Hopefully the cameramen present on the night were capturing material for a release – only time will tell.
Photos courtesy of Anthony Smith
