Perfume Genius at Glasslands
Perfume Genius is a ridiculous moniker but the music from the 26-year old Seattle native Mike Hadreas will break your heart. I honestly stumbled onto these home recordings a few weeks ago and was lucky enough to catch an intimate show at the 92Y in Tribeca on Tuesday, following the release of his debut LP Learning from Matador.
The album is a slow burn to be sure, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear Hadreas supporting Antony and the Johnston's or Cat Power this time next year. I'll spare the dripping, critical language for now and say it's all right there on the sleeve, with every song starting like something you've heard and ending before you can call it composition. It's simple, sparse stuff in the mode of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone's Owen Ashworth, who coincidentally just announced his final tour at another Brooklyn show this past week. Yet where Ashworth uses grinding keyboards and conversational lyrics to nail a song's one arresting line, Hadreas is precious without being overly sentimental or even self-aware. He barely spoke a word at 92Y show. It all saves the debut from letting some serious emotional weight collapse the toothpick song structures. We'll see how it holds up, but you should catch his second and final New York show at Glasslands this Friday, July 23rd and say you saw him when.
Perfume Genius performs with Malati Malay at 8pm July 23, 2010. Tickets available here
