Perfume Genius, aka Seattle-based musician Mike Hadreas, opened this Roundhouse gig with the delicate piano sounds of Otherside, the first song from his latest album, No Shape. It was an opening that silenced a rapt audience.
Hadreas’s stunning vocals hovered gently over the leading notes before the song erupted into a dream-like odyssey of futuristic effects. As the lighting strips on stage turned the venue various shades of neon, it felt like entering an alternate universe.
The theme continued on Longpig and Fool from Hadreas’s third album, Too Bright. Recalling the unearthly works of Stranger Things composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, the inventive songs filled the cavernous venue. Its acoustics suited the choral-like tones of Hadreas’s voice especially well.
He talked minimally and nervously, and long silences broke up songs throughout — a far cry from his occasional stage-struts.
Hadreas’s early work was well-represented, such as the excellent My Body and Grid, where drone-like layers built towards terrifying climaxes. Hadreas’s high-pitched screaming on the latter created a particularly disorientating effect. These were juxtaposed with devastating piano solos, such as No Good, which echoed Yann Tiersen’s Eusa and William Basinski.
A long encore saw Hadreas play guitar and piano before the set culminated in fearless gay anthem Queen.
Whether through sonic innovation, his fragile vocal style or all the moving confessional lyrics, Hadreas last night proved himself to be one of our most exciting young performers.
