Live Review: Chet Faker

The night was young and people were already packing out the Chevron Gardens to make the most of a relaxing Saturday drinking and chatting the night away. The first act, GL, helped to loosen the crowd up with their fun, easy-going nature. The duo took to the stage in style with their electronic pads and synths, defined by bell timbres and ambient textures. Their '80s synth-pop influence plays a major role in their unique sound, reminiscent of Madonna, Hall & Oates and Cyndi Lauper. They shared some cool tunes incorporating intense falsetto female vocals, a vocoder and jungle oriented beats during their set list including Grip, Won't You See and Take Me Back.

The wonderful Chet Faker struts to his sample pads to showcase his glorious range of songs from his album Built On Glass and then some. The triple j favourite has earned himself #1, #7, #8 and #21 on the Hottest 100, and three ARIA awards, independently realising smooth ambient tracks from the depths of that iconic beard… and the help of his own studio. The mysterious sampler says not one word upon entering the stage and chooses to only sample for the first two songs in his set before greeting the crowd and going on to sing some tracks including popular 1998 and a really suave cover of Van Morrison’s Moon Dance.

Faker seems to be a man of few words; however, he shares a lot of wisdom when he speaks, especially his feelings about people's obsession with technology at concerts. But the only question on people's minds, though, was, “why didn't Chet sing Gold?”

His companions — drums, left, and guitar, right — appeared to be pros at their craft, helping Mr. Faker to bring his works to fruition, who proved to not only be a sampler of keys and pads but also a guitar player too. His vocals are like the love child of John Butler and Darwin Deez, depicting a soft croon with his mid-high register. He busts out Gold and Talk Is Cheap as a denouement to celebrate his time spent with fellow Perthians, a crowd he thought was much more intimate and enjoyable for a change. He thanked Perth for being good to him and also thanked his musical companions, and we shall wait to see what the bearded soul has to bring back on his next album.