Gotye’s intricate set was orchestrated to a tee. Acclaimed animation teams faultlessly backed his music and lyrics with jaw dropping, dizzying, and at times creepy, but always emotive visuals. Brendan Cook’s endowment “Eyes Wide Open” was the perfect spearhead for the visual banquet. The audience sang along proudly as Gotye’s musical phalanx materialized our aural memory of the track.  Other animation amazements included the distorted delight “State Of The Art”, one of my fave’s, a Disney-1950’s-circa animation which was tailored especially for the track.

When Gotye’s is showing his best abilities, the songs have a way of warping old ideas into something fascinating.  “Hearts A Mess” was another emotional rollercoaster as Gotye turned the less than full venue into an intimate setting.  Taken from second album “Like Drawing Blood”, the 2007 track painted Gotye as more than a musical genius but also a beautiful singer with an impressive vocal range.

But for all his rangy instrumental talents and un-teachable ways around a chorus, Gotye has a big streak of beach-dude earnestness.  He busted out with the new-agey coos of “Save Me” by asking for a communal audience call-and-response, they responded well.

Hitting the # 1 spot on the charts in the U.K and now exceeding 332 million views, “Somebody that I Use to Know”, came at about the one hour mark of his performance; most of the audience was unable to stay seated … I again was gripped at his performance

Unfortunately, the “sleepy” ones vacated the pavilion after that song, leaving the arena with only a handful of devotees.

Get back to H-Town soon, De Backer, I was positively impressed.