Gig of the Year: Grimes

She came, she saw, she conquered our hearts. The usually blasé and disaffected Mancunion Music team couldn’t contain themselves. They were reportedly covered in glitter, drinking a bit too much Lucozade and shouting “I LOVE YOU” in between giggles and squeals.
Flanked by three bamboozling backing dancers, the gig was an audio-visual extravaganza from beginning to end. After set opener ‘Genesis’, the set largely focused on new album Art Angels, with ‘REALiTi’, ‘Flesh Without Blood’ and ‘Scream’ following in quick succession.
Grimes’ disciples of freaks and geeks were all in attendance, looking either incredibly futuristic or incredibly dated, many managing both at the same time. Grimes herself is impossible to periodize, but she definitely looks like she’s appeared from the future. Springing between the stage and her synths and still belting out her ranging vocals. Despite the ferocity of tracks like ‘Scream’, Grimes was endearingly bashful when it came to talking to the crowd in between songs. She even swerved doing an encore as she professed to “getting so nervous coming on stage that I wouldn’t come back on”. Not that this mattered, for despite the disappointing omission of ‘California’, the show was practically perfect.
Grimes’ movement from underground to unashamed pop is telling of music at the moment; gone are the days of generic watered down indie boy bands and indie rock, and in with interesting genre spurning multi platform performers and artists. High octane, brash, colourful and exciting; this is how live music should be done. “I’ll never be your dream girl”, sang Grimes at the end of ‘Butterfly’. Claire, you will always be our dream girl.