Chet Faker Live at Astor Theater (Perth, Australia)

We were lucky enough to catch Chet Faker  (aka Nick Murphy) in Perth last week and, lord, this was magical. Just as expected.

This was my second time watching him live and things did change a bit: starting from the crowd to his whole stage presence. The first time I saw him was in Germany back in 2013 and he was touring with all of his old stuff: Thinking in Textures. He was still amazed back then that people would actually come out to listen to his 10 songs.

This show had nothing left of this shyness and modesty, we could really see how much more comfortable Chet was on stage.

Sadly enough he had a bad case of laryngitis, which made him cancel a few shows in Melbourne before, but he still managed to perform the entire show with just a cup of tea next to his piano.

Even though the show was a part of his Built On Glass tour, I was happy to hear some of the oldies.

Built On Glass showed the diversity of Murphy's talent - jazzy elements, vocals proving to be not just mellow, a whole lot of new electronic elements, blues influences.

Even though the crowd was not as I expected it to be (too drunk, too young, too much of everything), they have supported everything that has been going on on stage. Even when Murphy was playing his last song and his voice completely gave up on him (the song was "Talk Is Cheap" which was a big deal), the crowd chanted with him and helped him pull it off and finish the show with a very beautiful moment.

Probably my favourite part of the show was when he announced "fuck ups" section, during which Murphy just improvised and left room for mistakes and anything else outside of his records. Surely he did not fuck it up and it was mesmerizing to watch him not just play music, but play WITH music.

His support deserves a separate post, which I have honestly been planning ever since I saw Chet Faker live for the first time: Rat & Co. These guys with their heavy beats, yet mellow electronica and hip-hop influences got everybody dancing and surely became a good starter of a gig.

Even if there is still someone out there, who is not fascinated by his talent, a show like this could totally change the whole attitude. This was a very intimate and powerful performance.