Gotye (August 11th, Atheneum Theatre)

After the not-particularly-exciting support act, we were rather impatient for the main act to start. It was almost a quarter past ten, we were sitting in the second back row of the stalls in the theatre looking at our watches, wondering what the hell was taking them so long. Sure it was an orchestra, but the Melbourne Symphony manages to start on time. So it was with great anticipation that we greeted Wally De Backer when he finally emerged onto the stage, followed by the string players, percussionists, bass player, a saxophonist and a clarinet player. He opened with a short solo vocal track, which flowed straight into a great rendition of The Only Way and from there the set was filled with highlights.

The material came from two albums, his first Boardface and the more recent Like Drawing Blood. As the music played, the screen behind the stage showed short animated videos which complemented the songs. Most of the songs did not disappoint. From the recent album we heard a remix of Puzzle With A Piece Missing, the hilarious Thanks For Your Time with a great accompanying video, Hearts A Mess (not quite up to the album version though) and Coming Back. We also heard older material like Out Here in the Cold and The Only Thing I Know. The finale was a fantastic performance of Learnalilgivinanlovin which had people dancing in the aisles and left us buzzing with excitement as we walked out. A short, solid set which was well worth the relatively cheap ticket price.