Perfume Genius graced the Turner Hall Ballroom with his presence on March 28 and delivering a performance that will be sure to leave an impression on all those that were in attendance.
The opener, Hand Habits, took to the stage but instead of the normal band, it was simply just Meg Duffy, the lead singer and songwriter of the group. Duffy also plays guitar in Perfume Genius so it was a nice taste of things to come.x
Duffy lamented on how at a previous show, someone wrote that they spoke to much, the crowd shouted in disagreement and encouraged them to continue talking. Duffy continued that Milwaukee reminded them of upstate New York where they are from.
Duffy left the stage as quickly as they arrived. The crowd was building and attendees flooded in.
Then, the lights went out and a creepy chant began to play from the speakers as the members took their spot on stage. Eventually, lead singer Michael Hadreas took to the stage, dressed in a suit that was reminiscent of something you’d see someone wear to a wedding.
The crowd began moving along with Hadreas, immediately put into the trance his hypnotic voice.
Hadreas played a couple songs from his album “Set My Heart on Fire Immediately,” before switching to some sadder songs from his previous albums.
Then like a switch is flicked, Hadreas broke back into his groove and into the songs like “Otherside” and “Slip Away” that delivered just pure euphoria to the listener.
As show got closer to the end, Hadreas took the chiffon lying on the side of the stage and dove into it, rolled around in it and arose from it like a gorgeous bride bathed in the red light of the stage.
Hadreas stated that it was hard to not just dive back into the mess of all the chiffon. It’s clear the Hadreas recognizes the importance of stage presence and takes it seriously.
Then, as quickly as they arrived on stage, they were off. The crowd stood around in awe at the mess of chiffon left on stage.
Perfume Genius’ new album “Ugly Season” will be released June 17.