Live Review: Pharrell Williams, Baauer, Nina Las Vegas

It seems phenom Pharrell Williams has Perth fans divided over his 'disappointing' set this past Friday night. Rather than talking about the negatives, let's cover the positive aspects of what happened during said 40 minutes.

Before we get to that, it's only right that Nina Las Vegas and Baauer get the recognition that they deserve. Nina Las Vegas opened the evening, sticking mostly to her breed of remixes. Her own remix of Beyonce's ***Flawless was a stand out, but we also heard from the likes of Drake, Bel Biv Devoe and Daft Punk. It was a solid warm-up set. Baauer played for the next hour, backed by some out of this world visuals including imagery of skulls, fire, volcanoes and eyeballs, to name a few. The young producer played Biggie Smalls to Lloyd Banks to Kanye to Miguel, all the while attempting keeping his audience happy. Respect to Baauer for NOT dropping Harlem Shake.

And then, at a few minutes to nine, DJ Eque took to the stage, followed closely by two back-up dancers and the god-like presence of Mr Williams himself. Wearing his trademark hat, Williams got straight into his back catalogue of hits, including those he has produced for other artists, including Can I Have It Like That and Hot In Herre (at which point he took his shirt off – *swoon*).

Williams then played through a medley of N.E.R.D tracks, including Lapdance and She Wants To Move, during which he invited girls to join him on stage and dance. He then performed Beautiful, keeping the girls on stage and even singing directly to and dancing with a few of them. Every woman in the crowd (and some of the men) died of jealousy at this point.

The next half of Williams' set included Frontin', Hunter (from his new album), Blurred Lines and finally, his most popular track to date, Happy (twice). Williams decided that he would walk through the crowd to the back of the venue so that he could be amongst his fans and those that “made him number one in the country” during this performance. It was a nice touch.

All in all, Williams gave the audience exactly what he was paid to – a festival-style set – all whilst continually thanking his “Perth fans”. It was engaging, it was entertaining and it was well worth the $70 or so asking price for tickets. So, despite the controversy, this reviewer remains a solid fan. Thank you, Pharrell Williams.