Live Review: Gotye, PVT & Bertie Blackman

Gotye's frankly mind-boggling rise in popularity affords him spots at the Sydney Entertainment Centre these days. Joining him were Sydney outfit PVT and Bertie Blackman (complete with furry animal suit). It was a clinical pop performance that coloured safely within the lines, and although it lacked any sort of spontaneity it still had a warm beating heart courtesy of Gotye's humanist songwriting.

Bertie Blackman performed a solid set of old and new material, starting off with Tremor. There's not a whole lot of experimentation to her work, and she relies on basic pop tropes and instrumentation to get her message across. That being said, her slick delivery suits the semi-dark tone in her music and she provided just enough melodrama to keep it entertaining.

PVT played next with a perfectly fine set of synth-pop tunes that managed to keep us amused while not challenging us in any way.

Gotye not only filled the room, he filled the stage as well. He had an inordinately large contingent of musicians helping him out, most with multiple instrument duties. His clockwork song structure is intricate and full of detail, and the material was flawlessly executed with impeccable professionalism and talent. The set started with the Middle Eastern strains of The Only Way, moved through the bossa nova flavoured What Do You Want? and the scuzzy '60s stomp of Easy Way Out.

The night tripped up a little with the introduction of 'comedian' Barry Morgan, whose shtick is smiling too much in a velvet brown suit. Helping out with State Of The Art, he squeezed some laughs out of the crowd and pranced off. Gotye played host rather than artist, and it felt forced and artificial.

This brings us to the key failing of the night – it was too choreographed. There was not a single hair out of place for the entire set, and while each element was well polished and sometimes even inspired (the use of his excellent music videos behind the stage was a great idea), the level of artifice was too apparent. The fact that not a single person on stage broke a sweat throughout the night was telling.

Musically, the set was diverse and well-constructed, with nice shifts in tone and energy (Bronte resonated beautifully with an audience in rapture). Gotye is a humanist at heart, and his warm subject matter balanced out the super-smooth performance. Overall it was a great night, despite being completely and utterly safe. I envy fans who can remember seeing him in tiny venues with that same vibrant charm, free of the trappings and responsibilities of performing as a newly minted pop star.