Father John Misty's impassioned, whole-hearted and hilarious performance was one of the best shows of 2015. Photo by Rhys Machell
Father John Misty's impassioned, whole-hearted and hilarious performance was one of the best shows of 2015. Photo by Rhys Machell
With more aerial microphone stand choreography than a Cirque du Soleil show, and snakier hips than Mick Jagger, Father John Misty aka Josh Tillman, was a sassy, soulful revelation at the St James Theatre in Auckland last night.
The beautifully long-haired, Jesus-in-a-sharp-suit lookalike has been swaggering his way to stardom since the release of second solo album I Love You, Honeybear earlier this year. Live, his performance made you bite your lip in delight.
"He's like Nick Cave with faf swag" a friend whispered two songs into the set. Indeed. He clearly doesn't belong behind the drums, which was his role for several years as a member of American folkies Fleet Foxes.
Apart from the obvious fact that his sweet and sarcastic voice deserves to be centre stage, he's every inch the perfect showman - if the knees of his suit were looking worn at the beginning of the evening, they certainly would've needed patching by the end.
Tillman generously throws himself around, prancing like Jarvis Cocker, and falling to a prayer-like pose right out the front of the stage.
The mic stand is used like an old fashioned dance cane, and he swings the mic around on its lead like a burlesque dancer. It's completely captivating. And then, of course, there's the music.
Because Honeybear is an album full of stand-out songs, so too is the setlist. He opens with the swinging, swooning ballad of the album title, matching soaring melodies with cynicism and fear.
His five-piece band (four out of five members also have long hair, and four out of five also have beards) do a remarkable job of recreating the lush orchestrated arrangements of the album with a slightly more rock'n'roll edge.
Strange Encounter is just dreamy, True Affection is delivered in a lovely slow psychedelic disco style, and When You Are Smiling And Astride Me is an early highlight with the audience supplying the sighing backing vocal "Ohs" on the seductive torch song delivered with many a knowing glance.
The tender yet cutting lyrics of Chateau Lobby #4 (In C for Two Virgins) are sung with great comedic precision, and there's a short but epic drum solo on I'm Writing A Novel which ramps the energy up (not that the crowd need any encouragement - they've been wondrously excited all night) before Tillman addresses the audience for the first time, and immediately lives up to his reputation for being a quick stand-up comic too.
"It's nice to look out and see people clearly having the best time of their lives - it's the bare minimum I require every night to keep going. If you're not, well this sarcastic meta ballad about despair will surely help."
Father John Misty at the St James Theatre. Photo by Rhys Machell
And he launches into Bored In The USA, a brilliant, incisive break down of modern society, accompanied simply by piano, with Tillman under a simply spotlight. It's both poignant and hilarious, the crowd adding to the canned laugh track with their own amusement. Goosebump inducing.
He then quickly regales us with a tale of last night's bowling escapades, and manages a great dig at America's gun laws.
Later set highlights come in the form of Nothing Good Ever Happens at the Goddamn Thirsty Crow and an impassioned, Holy Shit.
Of course ending the set with a storming, electric performance of The Ideal Husband had the whole audience raucously chanting along "I came round at seven in the morning, seven in the morning", and felt like an appropriately euphoric climax.
It would be telling to reveal what was discussed when Tillman came back out for an encore and offered the audience an opportunity for "questions or comments?"
But his delivery of touching acoustic folk song I Went To The Store One Day felt like he was channeling Don McLean, and their final dance-along number Everyman Needs A Companion left the audience simultaneously swooning and buzzing.
Easily one of the best shows of the year, and the St James Theatre was the perfect venue for such a whimsical, theatrical performance. Let's hope Tillman and his snake hips return soon.
