Photos By: Summer Luu
By: Amanda Martinek
On Friday night, large amounts of lovely ladies swarmed like locusts into the Casbah, to watch a ginger-bearded Australian with the voice of an angel perform.
Chet Faker, who rose to fame via the Internet back in 2011 when his smooth, extra sexy cover of Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” broke millions of YouTube views, sang to a sold-out and extra small crowd. “This is probably the smallest venue I’ve ever played in my whole life,” Faker said in awe.
Riling up the crowd with funky electronic mixes of old and new hits alike, Sweater Beats opened the night and got everyone dancing, DJ mood.
The lights dimmed low and Chet, with a grey sweater wrapped around his neck and tall blue beanie, took his spot behind his DJ set up and keyboard, as began to lay down the beats and set the mood; slow, sultry and entrancing.
Unlike so many electronic artists now a day, who seem bored on stage pushing keys and changing levels, Chet combines an electronic backdrop with the vocal swagger of RnB, jazz and blues and gets totally lost in what he’s doing, as the crowd gets lost with him.
That is, until, the lights are turned even lower and a few dickly crowd members continue to flash the crowd with bursts of lights from their smartphone. Got to get that perfect Instagram shot. Chet’s response? “Put down your fucking phones. If somebody next to you is using their phones, swap it out of their fucking hand.”
Maybe a little surly, but he had a point. Next time you see Chet Faker live, make sure to get all your Instas in the first few songs. Then let yourself get lost.
