One
thing that happens when you're an artist and you have one massive, ridiculously
popular hit single that's completely unrepresentative of the rest of your
catalog blow up the interwebz, is that every every other BU coed not busy getting randy on Smirnoff Ice somewhere comes to your very sold-out show. I'm
not saying that's a bad thing, I'm just saying it's a thing that happens.
Another, is that
you then have to work a lot harder to win over the audience, since can't play
that one hit song 12 times and call it a night.
I mean you could, it's your
show, but it might be weird. Good thing, then, that GOTYE was fully up
to the task last night. I'll admit, I was a little worried for the guy. For one
thing, he seems like sort of a strange dude. All lanky and floppy-haired and
quiet-like. For another, as aforementioned, the 11 tracks on Making
Mirrors that aren't "Somebody That I Used to Know" could well have come from a completely different artist. Turns out, though, Gotye a/k/a Wally de
Backer is sort of a hell of a performer. Presiding over a wall of keyboards,
sound machines, and mics, back dropped by trippy video installations, he came
to play, and he brought his A-Game.
Waiting for Gotye
to take the stage, I was pretty sure I was going to jam my PBR can down the
throat of the girl next to me, if she didn't stop yapping to her friends about
that dude in her psych class, or whatever. We get it, he's super dreamy, but
why are you screaming? But when Gotye charged into "Eyes Wide Open" -- maybe his
best song, you know, other than that other one you might be more familiar
with-- they shut right up. What's more, they were really into it. As was the
[majority of] the rest of the audience. Particularly the dude who swooped in
next to me mid-show, dancing Peanuts-style with his arms swinging all around
like they didn't belong to him. "Is this weird?" he asked me, at least three
times. "Am I being weird?" Well sort of bro, but no weirder than the
tripped-out images flashing behind Gotye up on the stage as he ran through a
pretty awesome rendition of "State of the Art."
I felt a little weird, too,
point of fact, though that could have had something to do with the kids behind
me smoking weed. A lot of weed! In the House of Blues! Without being hog-tied
and dragged from the venue!
So that's something.
Props to the crowd
for waiting patiently through four or five songs before he served up the track
everyone had been panting for all night. Gotye invited Kimbra back onstage for
"Somebody That I Used to Know," which I think sounded pretty good live, although it
was sort of hard to tell what with every single person in the room yelling
along like it was a contest to see who knew the words best and loudest.
We all
win!
"That was very good," he told the audience, as we all stood there,
catching our collective breath. "But do you think you'd be able to sing along
to the next one, as well?" Cheeky bastard. Turns out they could, at least to
the yeaaaee-yeahh chorus of "Save Me."
Also props to the
crowd for not taking off after the pièce de résistance. If anything, in fact,
the energy of the room picked up after "Somebody." All told, the show didn't
run much longer than an hour, even with three encores, because, sort of
strangely, Gotye only played off of his third and most recent album. Out of the
HoB by 10:30 pm, not bad for a school night. "Do you know where my friends are?"
Peanuts-guy asked me, as the lights came on. (I sure didn't, but I hope he found
them).
So is Gotye
destined for one-hit wonderdom, soon to be somebody we'll say we used to know?
(Sorry, did that, had to). Maybe, but, judging from last night's performance, I hope
not. Oh also, check this out. Pretty awesome, no?
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