Reviewed onWednesday February 10 (photo by Ashley Mar)
Performing on a festival stage is certainly a very different experience to headlining a solo show, and it’s a transition that Grimes mastered well from Laneway to the Enmore. Every detail, from the light show to her two synchronised dancers, was carefully tailored to suit the solo act.
At just 17 years old, Lupa J opened the night with a surprisingly mature sound and worked expertly with her violin and looped vocals to draw in the audience. She was followed by the dreamy and cosmic American support act Hana, who filled the space with her ambient vocals, which blended from song to song. However, she particularly shone later as a backing singer for the headliner, where her vocals truly soared.
By the time Grimes hit the stage at close to 10pm, the atmosphere was positively sleepy, but there was little time for that as she exploded on, performing ‘California’ with so much energy that she barely looked human. Her never-ending bouncy dance moves were only proven natural when they were followed by her breathless interjections between songs to introduce collaborations.
‘Venus Fly’ and ‘Realiti’ pumped up the crowd with strong beats and their forceful chanting. In fact, tracks from Grimes’ latest album Art Angels were so well received by the audience that hits from Visions like ‘Genesis’ almost paled in comparison because of their slower, more gradual builds.
A humorous surprise of the night came when Grimes explained that Taiwanese artist Aristophanes wasn’t there to perform ‘Scream’ in Mandarin, so she would be performing it in Russian instead. The audience, unsure if this was a joke or not, smiled and nodded until Grimes leapt across the stage, singing (and screaming) in what we could only assume was a perfect translation.
Not every performance was flawless – there was a moment where Grimes had to consult her lyrics mid-dancing (which she approached with good humour), plus some mic issues at the beginning, synth glitches, and her flu threatened to get the better of her in a stunning cover of Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’. But the highlight of the night came right at the end when she skipped the tiresome encore exit/entry and blasted ‘Kill V. Maim’, the crowd shouting it back so loudly that it even came through the mics.
