The Perfume Genius Show Celebrates 'Very Bright' in Hollywood, With a Beautiful Illustration from Always

 Times of discover News: Some albums you listen to multiple times after their release and some stay with you forever. I still consider Perfume Genius' breakout album, Too Bright, one of the best recent albums because I still listen to it with the same feeling. The songs still work their magic, all presented with a raw and soulful poignancy you rarely see in today's music industry.

The record is 10 years old and Mike Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius, had only planned a few anniversary shows at intimate venues, including two shows at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Tickets for both nights sold out quickly, but I was able to get tickets for Thursday night.

The Perfume geniuses write music that grabs you unexpectedly, creates a lump in your throat, sends chills down your spine and even changes you, but their captivating performances always convey an incredible vulnerability, like a pursuer, mix it with attitude, and these shows show you shouldn't miss them.

Los Angeles-based composer, singer and producer Juliana Barwick started the night with original and contemplative compositions rooted in layers of voice. Standing in front of an electronic table, she was creating tracks with cathedral effects while recording loops of her vocals for the most amazing polyphonic result. It was pulsating and mysterious, divine music in the middle of a tomb, slowly expanding into the beautiful space while all the tracks were interconnected. With piano lines and soaring vocals, they delivered a contemplative performance for the audience, who listened in religious silence throughout the show.

As expected, Hadreas and her band played the entire Too Bright album as well as a few other songs, filling the night with pure beauty. The touching music brought out deep emotions in the audience and I even saw one man cry during some songs. Wearing a fancy dress for the occasion, she seemed to enjoy every second of the show, but the genius of Perfume, in a fancy gold shirt, under a dark gold jacket that he hadn't put on in a long time, seemed a little nervous at first, but then he told us he was having a great time.

As she played her music with powerful theatricality, she moved from her position at the front of the stage to a more remote spot behind her keyboard. Too Bright is impressively full of gorgeous piano melodies, but it also had blue strings, experimental synths, electronic violence, shrill screams, noisy beats and it was all there on this beautiful night. His music perfectly conveys the album's impressive range of raw emotions, while his fiery, poignant vocals touch everyone's heart. He's one of those rare artists who can effortlessly combine toughness with vulnerability, courage with frailty, and even aggression, embodying a character that can be triumphant.

"No family is safe/When I sashay," Hadreas sings on the album's second song, "Queen," in a brilliantly loud, empowered, and dangerous lineup. He delivers this satirical and triumphant anthem with absolute and unabashed grace, and he sings it a second time during the encore of this beloved song, picking up a pile of tulle hanging near the stage, wrapping himself in it and then falling onto a chair in the middle of the stage, which was the show's most dramatic moment on top.

He builds this romantic vision throughout the album, with the seriousness of some of the slower songs a stark contrast to the aggression and aggression of other tracks. It would be no exaggeration to say that every song on "Too Bright" sounds different, and there is nothing predictable, conventional in them. They cry and rage, from peacetime to war, from grief to pain, from fear to ferocity.

The upbeat and finger-tapping rhythm of "Flowers" turns into a church-like hymn, with Hadrea's operatic and cathartic screams piercing the darkest and brightest parts of every soul. Mixing pain with moments of brilliance and ecstasy, the sublime tune "No Good" - a song he has never played live, as he tells us - is immediately followed by a carefree cascading piano notes. The screams during "My Body" added to the panic that comes from the hunger to combine terrifying melodies with terrifying ideas, but right in the middle of "Don't Come In" liquid morphine poured into our ears.