Perfume Genius

“Glittered with transcendent brilliance, gilded shadows do not hide the empowered dramatic turn of Perfume Genius’s Too Bright.”—PopMatters

Seattle-based Mike Hadreas, who performs as Perfume Genius, has cemented his place as a singer-songwriter of rare frankness. On past records, such as his 2010 debut Learning, he crafted achingly emotional songs that offer empathy and hope rather than any judgment or handwringing. Sparse, gorgeous, and with Hadreas’s quavering vocals often accompanied only by piano, they spin uncommonly beautiful tales of a life lived on the dark side—scarred, brutalized, yet ultimately reclaimed.

With Too Bright, his incandescent new release for the Matador label, Hadreas has truly arrived with an album that’s a turning point in his career. Portishead's Adrian Utley, acting here as producer, has fleshed out Too Bright’s songs with synths and organic instrumental textures, pushing the tracks to darker corners and more hyperreal heights to support Hadreas’s raw-yet-defiant lyrics.

Not shying away from the complexities of his queerness, Hadreas delivers sly lines like “No family is safe when I sashay” with an air of winning mischief that will be more than evident when he brightens up your night on our stage. The proceedings will begin with impressive Norwegian provocateur Jenny Hval, known for her own brand of transgressive, experimentalist thrusts at the sonic and societal status quo.

Note: This show is standing room only.