Rarely have I encountered an individual and performance so charming. Travelling Australia without his band, Kishi Bashi is doing a very impressive solo show. Being very familiar with both of his albums, I was curious to see exactly how we was going to pull it off. Both albums are riddled with complexity and layered sound, it was difficult to imagine how this was going to work. The answer, it turns out, is to have two loop pedals and be surprisingly adept at beat boxing. So hear we have this waistcoat wearing fellow, with wild hair and a big grin, working his violin adeptly, displaying an incredible vocal range in between, and laying down the bout of beat-boxing, all while stepping on and off the loop pedals - and to incredible effect. The venue was tiny, which turned out to be perfect. The closeness and intimacy meant that you could see everything that happened, particularly if you were fortunate enough to end up on stage. When Kishi Bashi realised there were a good number of short people in a tall crowd, he cheerfully invited as many people as would fit to join him on the podium. Hugely interactive with the audience, and utterly charming. He talked over his rare looping fumbles with aplomb, was incredibly conversational, involved the audience in producing beats for the music, he even handed out candy. At the end of the show after disappearing for a little while, he even popped out to mingle with the people who stuck around. Highlights of the night were Q&A, Wonderwoman Wonder Me, Atticus In the Desert, Bittersweet Genesis for Him & Her, and of course the closer - Manchester. It was perfect. Thank you Kishi Bashi.
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