Live Review: Weyes Blood and Perfume Genius Earn Their Flowers at L.A.’s Greek Theatre

Like most genre labels, “art pop” is fluid and ambiguous, encapsulating a vast array of microgenres, from the foundational proto-punk of the Velvet Underground to the futuristic electronica of FKA twigs. Two contemporary acts that fall under the wide umbrella of art pop, Weyes Blood (a.k.a. Natalie Mering) and Perfume Genius (a.k.a. Mike Hadreas), share an interest in the romantic grandeur of acoustic ballads. But their disparate stage presences highlight the breadth and boldness that define pop music, and their performances at Los Angeles’s Greek Theatre last night were at turns electrifying and celebratory.

Much like Mering, Hadreas’s early work was largely piano-based and elegiac. With 2014’s Too Bright, however, he transformed into a strutting rock star, a persona he wholeheartedly embodies on stage. With his longtime boyfriend, Alan Wyffels, on keys, Hadreas kicked off his opening set with the invigorating “Your Body Changes Everything,” a highlight from 2020’s Set My Heart on Fire Immediately.

Starting with a song that centers the body was fitting, as Hadreas’s performance grew increasingly visceral over the course of 12 songs. His physicality underscored the emotional heft of songs like 2017’s “Otherside.” About halfway through the set, Hadreas joked that he needed to save up his energy, and he later unleashed it with an explosive, chaotic spirit on his 2019 song “Eye in the Wall,” a spiraling tribal house piece.

During a performance of “My Body,” Hadreas brought out a dancer who whipped him with bouquets of roses that disintegrated into piles of petals downstage. He wrapped things up with “Queen,” a bitingly satirical and triumphant queer anthem—“No family is safe/When I sashay,” he sings on the track—collecting the tulle that was draped over his band’s instruments and drowning himself in it, a decidedly unusual coda to his one-of-a-kind vision of a pop concert.

Mering took the stage in a markedly different fashion, floating to the mic in a dazzling gown and cape, wrapped in fog and surrounded by gothic candelabras. She opened with two downcast, world-weary songs from last year’s And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow, buoyed by her rich, passionate vocals. Throughout the set, she pondered which of her songs were best fit for raving and moshing (the answer is none, yet by virtue of the powerful beauty of her voice, and some intermittent banter, she kept her setlist of heartfelt ballads lively).

As Mering sang about the world’s hardness and the desire to be softer on “God Turn Me Into a Flower,” a montage of war clips, workout videos, and beauty shots flashed on a screen behind her, giving the already transcendent song a cinematic element. In that same vein, during her climactic performance of “Movies,” a standout from 2019’s Titanic Rising, she spread her arms, using her gown as a projection mapping screen for an oceanic wave pattern evocative of the album’s cover art. Singing, “I wanna be in my own movie,” Mering spun around the stage and threw roses into the standing pit, accompanied by yet another montage, this time of clips from films like Titanic and The Shining.

Mering displayed the same flair for the dramatic during her performance of “Twin Flame,” turning to reveal a glowing heart at the center of her chest. When she returned to the stage to cover Andy Williams’s “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing,” she donned a white top hat and cane, echoing a combination of fond nostalgia and impish humor that she shares with Hadreas. Before closing the show with the tender “Picture Me Better,” she invited Hadreas back on stage for a duet of her song “Sides.” Hadreas’s diaphanous tenor and convulsive dancing was contrasted by Mering’s silky alto and graceful mannerisms, but their unexpected, dynamic pairing offered a showcase of all the familiar, unfamiliar, and inspired dimensions of art pop.