Gig Review: Chet Faker at The Palais (27/2)

So this is long overdue... I went to see Chet Faker on the 27th of February at the Palais in St. Kilda. And let me just say that that theatre is beautiful. At first I was put off because I was completely convinced that I'd been there before to see Cats the musical with my grandfather but I fact checked with my mum and that was a lie (but perhaps a foreshadowing :o). Anyway singing cats aside, two of my friends and I arrived at 7.30, as the tickets read, but as we found out later he came on at like 9 (which coincidence or not, coincided with the arrival of the rest audience). A quarter filled theater aside, the support acts were overall - a solid meh. The first group were okay, they're a duo named GL (a mix of funk and pop). I think the reason I didn't enjoy their set was because the (lack of an) audience were speaking over them (rude.). The vocalist, Emma Thompson, had an incredible voice that was reminiscent of Sia - although that could have been because of her blonde bob and costuming. I took a particular disliking to the second support act, Roland Tings, who was a (crap) DJ. I think it was a combination of his shitty 8 minute intro that he introduced as "this is a little something that I wrote on the road last week" (a little something would be correct) and this thing he called dancing which involved him having what looked to be some sort of epileptic fit. This was made to be slightly more entertaining through our running commentary throughout his whole set (at least we whispered - well sort of).

Eventually 9pm came and Chet Faker a.k.a Nick Murphy a.k.a my brother's friend's brother (humble bragging) arrived (along with the rest of the sold-out set's audience). He began the show with an intense instrumental opener, in which he mimicked the DJing of friend Flume. He utilized stage lights and more specifically strobe lights to the point where I, no joke, put on sunglasses to protect my eyes. After Cigarettes & Loneliness, Murphy made a point of acknowledging his hometown and thanking all his fans for supporting him. A highlight was the track Melt, in which he channeled Michael Jackson at the mic with his smooth moon walk esque dance moves.

A particularly humerous part of the night was when he was performing To Me which involved looping and overlapping and all that great stuff. Anyway, the audience began to clap (irregularly) which resulted in Murphy having to stop and restart after telling his audience that "it's good to clap but it's important to clap in time" with a small smile. He got the audience on their feet with the cover that he was most known for No Diggity, after giving a small speech on how not to be afraid to stand up and just move with the music. Murphy even gave a nod to Van Morrison with a cover of Moondance that was stunningly heaped with reverb. The show then ended with the most anticipated track of the evening, the Hottest 100 winner Talk is Cheap where the audience joined in to give Murphy a bit of love.

All in all I had a great evening, that resulted in unexpectedly meeting Lakyn Heperi outside the venue at the end where I cringedly told him that I'd been "following his music journey since the start". What can you do? At least I got a photo.

I give Chet Faker at The Palais Theatre a 4 out of 5 stars.