Hiatus Kaiyote at Big Night Live 8/10

Fresh off a festival spree that included Outside Lands and Fuji Rock, Hiatus Kaiyote stepped onto the Big Night Live stage bringing the same intensity they would share with a 100,000-person crowd. Spearheaded by the exuberant vocalist and guitarist Nai Palm, Hiatus Kaiyote is an Australian neo-soul band composed of bassist Paul Bender, keyboardist Simon Mavin, and drummer Perrin Moss. With the stage already not big enough for the intricate cacophony of Palm and her bandmates, the addition of three backup vocalists meant it was a full house at Big Night Live—jazz notes and glitter overfloweth, zapping the packed crowd with energy. 

If everything about Hiatus Kaiyote is maximalist and theatrical, their opener was the exact opposite. Still, California-born Australian rapper Caseaux O.S.L.O, armed with a sampler and a stopwatch, put on an impressive one-man show, priming the crowd with sunshiny beats. The highlight of his set was a “choose your own adventure” moment where Caseaux let the crowd decide between two tracks, resulting in a tribute freestyle to Curtis Mayfield that had the whole venue grooving to a Mayfield-sampled outro. 

“This will do nicely,” were the first words out of Palm’s mouth when she exploded onto the stage in an outfit that seemed to go right along with her latest Instagram caption: “River demon.” After revealing to the audience that she had spent the day canoeing in the Charles River, it could be possible that she had emerged straight from the water dressed in a studded-black leather harness with seaweed-green hair flowing down the backs of her legs. The crowd fit the part, as many concert-goers donned glitter that matched Palm’s signature sparkly eyebrows and eyelids. 

But even though Palm was the star of the show, the rest of Haitus Kaiyote was just as dynamic. They simply turned inward, imparting more focus on their instruments than on the crowd. On the drums, Perrin Moss tapped hi-hats faster than your eye could blink. On the bass, Paul Bender anchored each track with steady rhythms. And on the keyboard, Simon Marvin laid down gorgeous solo intros, floating over the keys with tight improvisation. Onstage, Hiatus Kaiyote was a living, breathing organism with the technical chops of the finest jazz musicians. But their flow seemed to stem from something deeper, more primal—they used their whole bodies as instruments as Palm peppered each track with plenty of yips, yaps, and claps. 

Throughout the show ran a sultry undertone, especially evident in their performance of “Red Room”, the hit track off their latest album Mood Valiant. Palm introduced the track as a “sexy one” and the lights dimmed to red, bathing the audience in the same post-sunset glow that the track describes. As the audience swayed to the chorus of “I got a red room / It is the red hour when the sun sets in my bedroom”, Palm brought the energy down to a cool simmer, effortlessly finger-picking on her equally sexy triangular electric guitar. 

In addition to “Red Room”, the setlist was predominantly focused on their 2021 release Mood Valiant with tracks such as “Chivalry Is Not Dead” and “Get Sun”. Moving almost chronologically, Hiatus Kaiyote shifted from their recent material into older favorites. They even worked a niche Bowie cover in, bringing the Labyrinth soundtrack hit “Within You” into a modern dreamscape. After closing the show with a three-song encore from their second album Choose Your Weapon composed of “Breathing Underwater”, “Borderline With My Atoms”, and “The Lung”, Hiatus Kaiyote dissolved into the warm Boston night, leaving a trail of glitter behind. Without sacrificing artistry or flair, they polished the funky and weird into a colorful show that took a line straight from Palm’s words on “Red Room”: “It feels like I'm inside a flower / It feels like I'm inside my eyelids.”