Perfume Genius at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (24 May 2017)

Seattle’s Perfume Genius stopped by the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis last week, May 24th, touring in support of his new record No Shape (Matador Records).



Unfortunately, due to problems at the door, we were prevented from seeing serpentwithfeet, who is touring with Perfume Genius on this 2017 tour. Apparently, local Har Mar Superstar was a fan, as he was spotted early in for the show.



Perfume Genius came on stage right on time at 8:30pm, singing and dancing in a very lowly lit room, wearing some sort of old fashion corset. The declaration backdrop was dressed in theme of his No Shape cover artwork: a tropical painting with ferns and greenery. It would seem that a lot of thought went into creating the atmosphere, especially with the lighting.



Perfume Genius is basically the stage name solo artist Mike Hadreas, began recording music under the moniker in 2008 when he moved back to Seattle. His songs often reflect his experience of being an openly gay man in a society that doesn’t always embrace what they don’t understand.



His breakout record, Too Bright, came out in 2014, and received critical acclaim – partly thanks to the vision by co-producer Adrian Utley of Portishead. At the height of Hadreas’ rise to fame, he appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman to perform ‘Queen’, undoubtedly his signature song by now. The song and record even came to our attention when he went on tour in 2014.



Seeing as how The Guardian commented that the new album No Shape “sounds like a unique talent coming into full bloom,” perhaps it will even top Too Bright.



As you can see from the setlist, it opens and closes heavily with songs from No Shape, with the middle sprinkled with ‘My Body’ and ‘Grid’ from Too Bright and a cover of Mary Margaret O’Hara’s ‘Body’s in Trouble’.



For the encore, as expected, Perfume Genius saved their song ‘Queen’ for the last song… a gift for the dedicated fans who waited.

Remaining tour dates:

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