Flashback Friday: Perfume - Party maker | Wig obliteration

With news breaking that Perfume will be performing at Coachella, it's only right that today's Flashback Friday is dedicated to them and their ridiculous stage game.

Those who know Perfume, know that they do not play when it comes to a performance. Perfume have a team behind them who continually do the most and deliver when it comes to great stage setups and productions. Perfume have done many ground-breaking performances to the point where Perfume doing a ground-breaking performance is normalised. It's an expectation that you have as a Perfume fan, that annually they're going to give you a performance and a short, back and side to go with it. But even so, they find new ways to leave fans stunned and amazed. And I'm sure their set at Coachella will be no different.

Most of those in attendance at Coachella will have no idea who Perfume are and therefore have no expectations. This puts Perfume in the best position, because they get to get to surprise the Coachella crowd and show them how basic their faves' sets are in comparison.

There is bar and a precedent that's set within US music when it comes to live / stage performances. But those who check out J-Pop and K-Pop know that the bars for Japanese and Korean pop acts are set far higher. There are of course exceptions. Just because the bar may not be ridiculously high for US pop acts, doesn't mean there aren't artists who pole vault over that bitch. And just because the bar is set high in J-Pop and K-Pop, doesn't mean there aren't acts who saunter beneath it. But this difference in expectation is what is going to have Perfume deliver a killer show and leave wigs blowing through Coachella like tumbleweeds.

It's no exaggeration that the act who could deliver a spectacle to rival Beyoncé's at Beychella could easily be a J-Pop or K-Pop act, and Perfume could be the ones to do it. Shit. They pretty much already have.

Ya'll remember their LEVEL3 tour performance of "Party maker" right?

I remember when I first heard "Party maker". I was at work when I received a DM from a Twitter follower that LEVEL3 had leaked. I picked up my phone and calmly walked to the toilets, where I sat in a cubicle, downloaded "Party maker" and proceeded to listen. I damn near choked. I couldn't help but wonder what a music video or a live performance of this would even look like. I had lots of different setups and scenarios playing in my head, but none of them was even remotely close to what we'd gotten. And once I saw this, I honestly couldn't imagine "Party maker" being handled any other way. So much so to the point that every performance of it that came after completely paled in comparison to the original, because they were complete compromises to the original vision of the performance; which was what they gave us for their LEVEL3 tour.

I like "Party maker" as a song. But I can't front. It's quite long and quite boring in places, despite having moments that really fucking rock. This performance transforms the song into something completely different. It's almost as though the song was made for this performance.

Technically, it's just insane. The amount of logistics involved in terms of the timing of the lifts, the visuals, the lights and the choreo accounting for the positions of each of the girls in the tic-tac-toe setup. It blows my mind every time. The sheer scale and spectacle. More effort and creativity went into this one performance that I've seen go into entire shows and tours.

And if this wasn't boss enough, the girls went straight from this into this...

Excuse me whilst I go and buy a new wig in advance for April 14th.