Perfume Genius @ St Luke's, Glasgow, 22 Aug

Hazy hues of pink and purple smoke descend as Perfume Genius, aka Michael Alden Hadreas, slinks onto the stage at St Luke’s. An intimate venue, the gathered crowd eagerly greet his arrival as he launches straight into a rendition of Your Body Changes Everything. 

“What I feel like when I’m performing is to just try to get everything out – good, bad, just real feelings. Not thoughts and ideas, not thinking about things, but actually really feeling them,” Hadreas said in an interview with Consequence of Sound earlier this year. “I guess that’s what I hope, that there’s some kind of catharsis.” This much is evident from Hadreas’ performance tonight.

The stage set-up is simple: a wooden chair sits to the side while the band encircle Hadreas, his naturally magnetic presence drawing us in. In-between songs his form is unassuming, near shy: but Hadreas as performer is where he comes to life – twisting backwards, eyes shut, gracefully commanding the stage. 

The first half of the set sees songs melt and merge into the next, synths fading into one another as ambient noise and soundscapes crackle in transitions between songs. It’s hard to take our eyes off Hadreas, as he sings ascending on track Jason of 'Letting in some love / Where there always should have been some'. His voice melds into the instrumentation, further adding to the dreamlike atmosphere.

It’s the second half of the set where dreamy ambient haze gives way to roaring guitars and crashing drums echoing throughout the venue. Climbing ever higher, fan favourite Slip Away sees the crowd ecstatic, and the band here are on full form, while flashing lights punctuate the noise. A moment of catharsis comes as Hadreas sits on the wooden chair, rocking backwards as his eyes close, sinking into the melodies. He allows himself to fall, crashing backwards and then picks up and takes the chair apart, leg by leg, performing all the while. It’s a moment of freedom and bliss, allowing us to lose control and surrender to emotion. 

Hadreas and band leave the stage to rapturous applause, but they’re not gone for long. The gathered crowd without a break burst into unanimous Glasgow cries of 'One more tune!’ and they don’t leave us hanging, eventually drawing the show to a close with anthemic crowd-pleaser Queen.  

'No family is safe / When I sashay', he croons, and we sing it back, the room animated. Tonight showcases the continual creative evolution of both Perfume Genius as act and Hadreas as performer: gentle intimacies wrapped with showmanship; magnetic command elucidated through quietly confident power. We’re just glad we’re here for the journey.