Perfume Genius

Forum Melbourne subscriber pre-sale begins 9am Friday 22 August.  General public tickets on sale 9am Monday 25 August.

Mistletone + Triple R proudly present the return of Perfume Genius, aka Mike Hadreas and the fiercest band he has ever assembled, bringing his pristine new album Glory to Forum Melbourne. Perfume Genius marshal the band's power, and Hadreas's  macabre imaginings and gallows humour, to humane ends: prying open a mildewed den full of alienation, longing and desire and letting it bask in the sunlight. 

Promoting his string of beloved, increasingly ambitious Perfume Genius albums during the past decade and a half—touring the world, dwelling in the public eye—clashed with Mike's innate impulse toward isolation. For Glory, he discovered a new songwriting process because he welcomed the dynamics of a group, leaving room in his compositions for his friends to flesh out the arrangements. Mike says: “I’m more engaged with the band and the audience. I’m still on some wild tear, but there’s more access and it’s more collaborative, in a way that makes it better, but also scary—because it feels more vulnerable.” If Glory is an uncommonly personal record, it’s because it reflects on Hadreas’ own anxieties and those of the world at large: the fears that come with success, and also a tenor of paranoia that pervades the zeitgeist. Glory feels like a collection of new standards for gay romantics and old souls adrift in the 21st century.

The debut Perfume Genius album Learning, released in 2010 via long-time label home Matador, instantly caught the attention of critics. “The songs on Hadreas’ full-length debut are eviscerating and naked,” said Pitchfork, “with heartbreaking sentiments and bruised characterisations”. These descriptors became the hallmarks of Perfume Genius' unique ability to convey emotional vulnerability not only lyrically, but with his impressively nuanced vocals. His following album, Put Your Back N 2 It was released in 2012 and continued to build both his audience and critical acclaim. 2014’s Too Bright exhibited a massive leap forward in both production and confidence. Co-produced by Adrian Utley of Portishead, the album featured the stand-out single, “Queen.” The track quickly became a queer anthem and a powerful statement of being. Perfume Genius performed the song on Late Night with David Letterman.

In 2017, Perfume Genius released the GRAMMY-nominated No Shape, an album that would crystalise his fanbase world-wide and bring mainstream awareness to his art. The record was produced by Blake Mills (Fiona Apple, Alabama Shakes). “If you listen to the four Perfume Genius albums in chronological order, you can hear Hadreas healing himself in real time, moving toward an emancipation that seems, suddenly, to have come to pass,” said The New Yorker. Perfume Genius has collaborated with artists including Christine And The Queens, Sharon Van Etten, Weyes Blood, Cate Le Bon and most recently, reuniting with Aldous Harding for the incomparable "No Front Teeth”.  Mike Hadreas continues to rebuke gay culture’s tendency to view ageing as a tragedy, peering past youth’s debaucherous prerogatives to reveal the possibilities of its aftermath. “There’s a map for the first part,” he says about being young and gay. “There’s books about hustlers and drinking and drugs and going out. And then, after that, there’s not a lot.” Glory furthers a concept he began to explore on the monumental Set My Heart On Fire Immediately, recasting life’s lengthy middle as an era of both wizened reflection and of navigating, with a bit more knowledge, the enduring mysteries of closeness, friendship and sex. The way that you live now is OK, this brilliant, generous album tells us, and at the same time, The way you’ll learn how to live in the future will be just fine, too.