Live Review: Chet Faker @ The Riverstage 31.10.2015

Is there a better way to spend Halloween than a date with Australia’s favourite ex-beard owner, Nick Murphy, aka Chet Faker? The answer is, no. 8000 other people agreed as the Brisbane’s beautiful Riverstage was packed, ready to witness something special.

The lights blackened, the crowd screamed and Chet sauntered on stage and wasted no time, letting the opening notes of recent single ‘Bend’ resonate through the amphitheater. Backed by his new live band featuring a percussionist, bass player and guitarist/keyboardist, the tone was set straight away – we’re in for a treat.

Taking us on a journey through his earlier works, Chet showed us why he’s one of the world’s best acts. Joined by a quartet of backing vocalists, we were taken through ‘Melt’ and ‘Release Your Problems’ before Chet flew solo as he introduced ‘I’m into you’. Backed by the crowd’s collective vocals it was hard for people to not get groovin’ and movin’. ‘I love you Chet’ was thrown around like confetti.

There are not many performers in this world that can be alone on stage keep the crowd in the palm of their hands. Live mixing and singing simultaneously, Chet showed us his incredible producing skills which have earned him so much praise.

Mid-song acapella during crowd favourite ‘No Diggity’ sent shivers down the spine before flowing into ‘Drop the Game’. It seemed Chet had turned the sound up in Flume’s absence, sending the crowd into a more active and attentive state.

Black outs between songs brought us to different settings and appearances. The backing singers would appear and disappear while the lights mimicked the timing of the tight rhythm section.

We were treated with a performance of his most recent collaboration with Marcus Marr ‘The Trouble With Us’. The funk was turned up, the drumbeat dropped and the bopping began.

The screen visuals were a little unsettling with a glitch appearing through out the final song that had many guessing whether it was deliberate or not. It distracted from the performance a little, but Chet managed to close the set with an extended outro jam before leaving the stage.

Given that ‘Talk is Cheap’ had not been played, it was pretty clear that Murphy would soon return to close out the night. With the crowd chanting ‘Talk is Cheap’ it wasn’t long before he returned sitting in front of a keyboard. We were treated with a taste of what is to come off his new album, with Murphy explaining that the next song ‘In Place of Comfort’ was written about the past year. Backed only by keys, Murphy performed a beautiful, slow paced tune with lyrics such as ‘you’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t’. This is a song I want to hear again and again.

The band then returned, this time with backing singers en masse and dual Saxophonists on hand. ‘To Me’ provided the perfect build up to the final performance of the night.

With an extended intro, Chet teased the crowd for a good two minutes, fiddling on the keys. It took a while for most to catch on to what was about to come, Australia’s favourite song of 2014, ‘Talk is Cheap’. A familiar song for all it proved to be the highlight thanks to the mass sing-a-long.

With this show being the last in Brisbane in support of his debut album, Built on Glass, Chet Faker pulled off a Stadium-like performance and showed us why he is one of the world’s best performers.