If ‘Past Me’ was to hear what ‘Present Me’ had to say about the Golden Electric tour at the Forum, then my resolute response would be: ‘Kimbra drugged Janelle Monae’. Reason being that Kimbra’s anxiety to juice a crowd for the nonpareil ArchAndroid had caked so thick that hopelessness set in and she felt she had to pull a sickie on her counterpart and slip a laxative into something in Monae’s dressing-room mini-bar. I’ll fill you in in a bit.
That’s because my attitude to Kimbra was one of slight nationalistic pride and wary ambivalence. Yes, I had heard her song with Gotye. No, I would never listen to it willingly. This is the rep she has with young-twenties pop-dismissers. So much so that to get a friend to come and see her live, I had to lure him with the carrot of free whiskey, and not tell him where he would be drinking that whiskey until we were lining up at the box office. As for her touring with Janelle Monae – seems to be the tour’s nascent came from Kimbra fandroiding out on Monae at the Montreux Jazz Festival where after talking, shared musical tastes and presentation values sparked a friendship that blazed the trail to a joint tour.
Also seems to be that Kimbra is fucking awesome live, this girl is a bawse. Coming on stage in a rigidly pouffed dress that doubled as skeleton-esque lighting, her set-list served as a sonic diorama of music she’d listen to driving on an LA highway. Settle Down was an almost a capella opener to the tambourine donning Two-Way Street and 90s Music, which sports a restless beat that bangs and exhibits her brain-picking from production giant Flying Lotus. Her new song, Miracle sounded apropos of ’70s disco and along with Cameo Lover showed off the phantasmagoria of creepy-arse images on the plinth of a screen behind her. Gold Mine was probably my favourite track played and was another with Tina Turn-up theatricality that makes her a great entertainer but probably an annoying house mate.
Known to do a rendition of James Brown’s CapeRoutine, Janelle Monae is also one for theatricality. So when her band, dressed in stark white as hospital-ward orderlies, lined up on stage with the scripted message – “Miss Janelle Monae will not be on your stage tonight… Unfortunately she has un-expectantly fallen ill and will not be able to take the stage,” they were met with anticipatory hoots and whistles. It was only after the formality of reassuring everyone that their tickets would be valid at the next show on Monday May 26 at their Plenary show that the collective ‘da fuq?’ set into the crowd.
If androids can dream of electric sheep, maybe they can get the shits too? Whatever her symptoms were, it seemed super unlikely that they came on suddenly like a Peter Parker spider bite – but given that she has since cancelled her Sydney show, perhaps the aforementioned spider actually selected Monae as its next victim, unleashing its venom while en-route to the venue. This garners Kimbra’s performance with some impressive professionalism, and ‘Present Me’ is now a begrudging Kimbra fan. As for Monae, it’s not a good look for the first Golden Electric performance but I’ll reserve judgment, show some empathy, and write all about it after next Monday’s show, if it occurs as planned. Stay tuned.
BY EDGAR IVAN
Photo by Anna Kanci
Loved: Kooyeh’s Jace Excell on back-up vocals and Misfits of Science’s Stevie on drums.
Hated: Lining up for whiskey.
Drank: Whiskey.
