And they were. It’s so rare to find a band that doesn’t take itself too seriously, even rarer to find one that can play. Hiatus Kaiyote are fun, but better than that, they are good. In the past couple of years in Melbourne I’d forgotten how entertaining musicians can be when they look up from their sneakers once in a while.
Support Act KillBot Kindergarten is a duo epic electro synth pop, all peroxide manga characters, sweeping melodies and keytars. The night attracted a good crowd that gets amongst it, rather than stand at the back of the room with their arms crossed inferring they were in better bands.
Hiatus Kaiyote are a four piece, with three backup vocalists that wandered on and offstage as they worked their way through the set, which meandered from smooth soul, to ragged funk jams. Frontwoman Nai Palm showed off impressive range, at times emulating slow, percussive vocals of Eryhkha Badhu, at others strapping on an electric guitar almost as big as her for extended psychedelic freak outs.
As a fledgling band, the set was punctuated with covers, ranging from a suave, bittersweet Donny Hathaway number to a slinky reinvention of Will Smith’s Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The four members of the band held it down immaculately as they segued between songs, while Nai Palm is an entirely different creature; twitchy, irrepressible and nebbish, cool and talented, leaping about the stage as she shoots golden awesome from her mic and fingertips. She’s like an unholy blend of Cody ChestNutt and Monkey Magic. Hiatus Coyote have a Tuesday residency at the Evelyn across November, so your humble reviewer recommends you get down and see them.
